Klumpke maintained a life-long fascination with the French animalier Rosa Bonheur, whom she first met in 1889. The two artists became lovers and kept up a lively correspondence even during Anna’s years in Boston. When she returned to France in 1898, she moved into a chateau with Bonheur, which she inherited upon Bonheur’s death in 1889 and where she continued to live until late in her life. Klumpke returned to San Francisco near the end of her life and published her memoirs in 1940. She died in 1942. Although she also painted genre scenes, the artist is known primarily for her portraits in an academic style. Her portrait of Elizabeth Cady Stanton hangs today in the National Portrait Gallery in Washiington, D.C., and her portrait of Rosa Bonheur in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Anna Klumpke’s work can also be found in the Pennsylvania Academy, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and the Musée National du Chateau de Fontainebleau. |