Isidore-Jules Bonheur began his career working with his elder sister, the painter and sculptor Rosa Bonheur (d. 1899), in the studio of their father, drawing instructor Raymond Bonheur. Although best-known as one of the 19th Century's most distinguished animalier sculptors, Bonheur initially worked as a painter, making his Salon debut in 1848 with the painting Cavalier africain attaqué par une lionne, and a plaster group of the same subject (no. 4619). The following year he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and from then on concentrated solely on sculpture, winning medals at the Salon in 1865 and 1869, as well as the Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1889.