Club, New York; “The Old Cobbler,” etc.
Her prize picture at the National Academy, New York, 1894, was called “The Old Spinner.” This picture had been refused by the committee of the Society of American Artists, only to be thought worthy a prize at the older institution.
MACGREGOR, JESSIE. The gold medal in the Royal Academy Schools for historical painting, a medal given biennially, and but one other woman has received it. Born in Liverpool. Pupil of the Schools of the Royal Academy; her principal teachers were the late Lord Leighton, the late P. H. Calderon, R.A., and John Pettie, R.A.
Her principal works are “In the Reign of Terror” and “Jephthah’s Vow,” both in the Liverpool Permanent Collection; “The Mistletoe Bough”; “Arrested, or the Nihilist”; “Flight,” exhibited at Royal Academy in 1901; “King Edward VII.,” 1902.
Miss Macgregor is a lecturer on art in the Victoria University Extension Lecture Scheme, and has lectured on Italian painting and on the National Gallery in many places.
At the London Academy in 1903 she exhibited “The Nun,” “If a Woman Has Long Hair, it is a Glory to Her,” I Cor. xi. 15; “Behind the Curtain,” “Christmas in a Children’s Hospital,” and “Little Bo-peep.”
MACKUBIN, FLORENCE. Bronze medal and diploma, Tennessee Exposition, 1897. Vice-president of Baltimore Water-Color Club. Born in Florence, Italy. Studied in Fontainebleau under M. Laine, in Munich under Professor Herterich, and in Paris under Louis Deschamps and Julius Rolshoven; also with Mlle. J. Devina in miniature painting.
Miss Mackubin has exhibited at the Paris Salon, the London Academy, and the National Academy, New York. Her works are portraits in miniature, pastel, and oil colors.
She was appointed by the Board of Public Works of Maryland to copy the portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom Maryland was named. The portrait is by Vandyck and in Warwick Castle. Miss Mackubin’s copy is in the State House at Annapolis.
Her portraits are numerous. Among them are those of Mrs. Charles J. Bonaparte, Justice Horace Gray, Hon. George F. Hoar, Mrs. Thomas F. Bayard, and many others. In England she painted portraits of the Countess of Warwick, the Marchioness of Bath, and several other ladies.
Miss Mackubin’s portrait of Cardinal Gibbons, exhibited in Baltimore in 1903, is much praised. He is sitting in an armchair near a table on which are books. The pose of the figure is natural, the drawing excellent, the flesh tints well handled, and the likeness satisfactory to an unusual degree. The accessories are justly rendered and the values well preserved–the texture of the stuffs, the ring on the hand, the hand delicate and characteristic; in short, this is an excellent example of dignified portraiture.
MACMONNIES, MARY FAIRCHILD. Awarded a scholarship in Paris by the St. Louis School of Fine Arts; medal at Chicago, 1893; bronze medal at Paris Exposition, 1900; bronze medal at Buffalo, 1901; gold medal at Dresden, 1902; Julia M. Shaw prize, Society of American Artists, New York, 1902. Associate member of Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris; member of the Society of American Artists, New York. Born at New Haven, Connecticut, about 1860.
Pupil of School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, Academy Julian, Paris, and of Carolus Duran.
Exhibited at Salon des Beaux-Arts, 1902, “The October Sun,” “The Last Rays,” and “The Rain”; in 1903, “A Snow Scene.”
[_No reply to circular_.]
MACOMBER, MARY L. Bronze medal, Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics’ Association, 1895; bronze medal, Cotton State and International Exposition, 1895; Dodge prize, National Academy, New York, 1897; honorable mention, Carnegie Institute, 1901. Member of the Copley Society, Boston. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, 1861. Pupil of Robert Dunning, School of Boston Art Museum under Otto Grundmann and F. Crowninshield, and of Frank Duveneck.
This artist paints figure subjects. Her “Saint Catherine” is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; “Spring Opening the Gate to Love” was in the collection of the late Mrs. S. D. Warren; “The Annunciation” is in the collection of Mrs. D. P. Kimball, Boston. Other works of hers are a triptych, the “Magdalene,” “Death and the Captive,” “The Virgin of the Book,” etc.
[Illustration: From a Copley Print.
SAINT CATHERINE
MARY L. MACOMBER]
“One feels, on looking at the Madonnas, Annunciation, or any of Miss Macomber’s pictures,… that she must have lived with and in her subject. Delicate coloring harmonizes with refined, spiritual conceptions…. Her most generally liked picture is her ‘Madonna.’ All the figures wear a sweet, solemn sadness, illumined by immortal faith and love.”–_Art Interchange,_ April, 1899.
MAGLIANI, FRANCESCA. Born at Palermo in 1845, and studied painting there under a private teacher. Going later to Florence she was a pupil of Bedussi and of Gordigiani. Her early work consisted of copies from the Italian and other masters, and these were so well done that she soon began to receive orders, especially for portraits, from well-known people. Among them were G. Baccelli–the Minister of Public Instruction–King Humbert, and Queen Margherita, the latter arousing much interest when exhibited in Florence. Portraits of her mother, and of her husband, who was the Minister of Finance, were also recognized as admirable examples of portraiture. “Modesty and Vanity” is one of her genre pictures.
MANGILLA, ADA. Gold medal at Ferrara for a “Bacchante,” which is now in the Gallery there; gold medal at Beatrice, in Florence, 1890, for the “Three Marys.” Born in Florence in 1863. Pupil of Cassioli. One of her early works was a design for two mosaic figures in the left door of the Cathedral in Florence, representing Bonifazio Lupi and Piero di Luca Borsi; this was exhibited in 1879, and was received with favor by the public.
This artist has had much success with Pompeian subjects, such as “A Pompeian Lady at Her Toilet,” and “A Pompeian Flower-Seller.” She catches with great accuracy the characteristics of the Pompeian type; and this facility, added to the brilliancy of her color and the spirit and sympathy of her treatment, has given these pictures a vogue. Two of them were sold in Holland. “Floralia” was sold in Venice. To an exhibition of Italian artists in London, in 1889, she contributed “The Young Agrippa,” which was sold to Thomas Walker. Her grace and fancy appear in the drawings which she finds time to make for “Florentia,” and in such pictures as “The Rose Harvest.”
This highly accomplished woman, who has musical and literary talent, is the wife of Count Francessetti di Mersenile.
MANKIEWICZ, HENRIETTE. Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. A series of her mural decorations was exhibited in various German cities, and finally shown at the Paris Exposition of 1890(?), where they excited such applause that the above honor was accorded her. These decorations are in the form of panels, in which water, in its varying natural aspects, supplies the subordinate features, while the fundamental motive is vegetation of every description. The artist has evidently felt the influence of Markart in Vienna, and some of her conceptions remind one of H. von Preusschen. Her technique is a combination of embroidery, painting, and applications on silk. Whether this combination of methods is desirable is another question, but as a means of decoration it is highly effective.
At an exhibition of paintings by women of Saxony, held in Dresden under the patronage of Queen Carola in the fall of 1892, this artist exhibited another decorative panel, done in the same manner, which seems to have been a great disappointment to those who had heard wonderful accounts of the earlier cycle of panels. It was too full of large-leaved flowers, and the latter were too brilliant to serve as a foreground to the Alhambra scenes, which were used as the chief motive.
MANLY, ALICE ELFRIDA. A national gold medal and the Queen’s gold medal, at the Royal Female School of Art, London. Member of the Dudley Gallery Art Society and the Hampstead Art Society. Born in London. Pupil of the above-mentioned School and of the Royal Academy Schools.
This artist has exhibited at the Academy, at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors, and other exhibitions. Her pictures have frequently been sold from the exhibitions and reproduced. Among these are “Sympathy,” sold as first prize in Derby Art Union; “Diverse Attractions”; “Interesting Discoveries”; “Coming,” sold from the Royal Academy; “Gossips”; “The Wedding Gown,” etc.
Miss Manly has done much work for publishers, which has been reproduced in colors and in black and white. She usually combines figures and landscape.
MANTOVANI, SIGNORA S. ROME.
[_No reply to circular_.]
MARAINI, ADELAIDE. Gold medal in Florence, at Beatrice Exposition, 1903. Born in 1843. This sculptor resides in Rome, where her works have been made. An early example of her art, “Camilla,” while it gave proof of her artistic temperament, was unimportant; but her later works, as they have followed each other, have constantly gained in excellence, and have won her an enviable reputation. Among her statues are “Amleto,” “The Sulamite Woman,” and “Sappho.” The last was enthusiastically received in Paris in 1878, and is the work which gained the prize at Florence, where it was said to be the gem of the exhibition. She has also executed a monument to Attilio Lemmi, which represents “Youth Weeping over the Tomb of the Dead,” and is in the Protestant Cemetery at Florence; a bas-relief, the “Angels of Prayer and of the Resurrection”; a group, “Romeo and Juliet”; and portraits of Carlo Cattanei, Giuseppe Civinini, Signora Allievi, Senator Musio, the traveller De Albertis, and Victor Emmanuel.
MARCELLE, ADELE, Duchess of Castiglione-Colonna, family name d’Affry. Born at Fribourg, Switzerland, 1837, and died at Castellamare, 1879. Her early manner was that of the later Cinquecento, but she afterward adopted a rather bombastic and theatrical style. Her only statue, a Pythia, in bronze was placed in the Grand Opera at Paris (1870). In the Luxembourg Museum are marble busts of Bianca Capello (1863) and an “Abyssinian Sheikh” (1870). A “Gorgon” (1865), a “Saviour” (1875), “La Bella Romana” (1875) are among her other works. She left her art treasures, valued at about fifty thousand francs, to the Cantonal Museum at Fribourg, where they occupy a separate room, called the Marcello Museum.
MARCOVIGI, CLEMENTINA. Born in Bologna, where she resides. Flower pieces exhibited by her at Turin in 1884 and at Venice in 1887 were commended for perfection of design and charm of color.
MARIA FEODOROVNA, wife of the Czar Peter I. As Princess Dorothea Auguste Sophie of Wuertemberg she was born at Trepton in 1759, and died at Petersburg in 1858. She studied under Leberecht, and engraved medals and cameos, many of which are portraits of members of the royal family and are in the royal collection at Petersburg. She was elected to the Berlin Academy in 1820.
MARIANI, VIRGINIA. Honorary member of the Umbrian Academy and of the Academy of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon. Born in Rome, 1824, where she has met with much success in decorating pottery, as well as in oil and water-color paintings. The Provincial Exposition at Perugia in 1875 displayed her “Mezze Figure,” which was highly commended. She has decorated cornices, with flowers in relief, as well as some vases that are very beautiful. Besides teaching in several institutions and receiving private pupils, she has been an inspector, in her own department of art, of the municipal schools of Rome.
MARIE, DUCHESS OF WUeRTEMBERG. Daughter of Louis Philippe, and wife of Duke Frederick William Alexander of Wuertemberg. Born at Palermo, 1813, and died at Pisa, 1839. She studied drawing with Ary Scheffer. Her statue of “Jeanne d’Arc” is at Versailles; in the Ferdinand Chapel, in the Bois de Boulogne, is the “Peri as a Praying Angel”; in the Saturnin Chapel at Fontainebleau is a stained-glass window with her design of “St. Amalia.” Among her other works are “The Dying Bayard,” a relief representing the legend of the Wandering Jew, and a bust of the Belgian Queen. Many of her drawings are in possession of her family. She also executed some lithographs, such as “Souvenirs of 1812,” 1831, etc.
MARIE LOUISE, EMPRESS OF FRANCE. 1791-1846. She studied under
Prud’hon. Her “Girl with a Dove” is in the Museum of Besancon.
MARLEF, CLAUDE. Bronze medal at Paris Exposition, 1900. Associate of the French National Society of Fine Arts (Beaux-Arts). Born at Nantes. Pupil of A. Roll, Benjamin Constant, Puvis de Chavannes, and Dagnaux.
Mme. Marlef is a portrait painter. Her picture, “Manette Salomon,” is in the Hotel de Ville, Paris; the “Nymphe Accroupie” is in the Municipal Museum of Nantes. Among her portraits of well-known women are those of Jane Hading, Elsie de Wolfe, Bessie Abbott of the Opera, Rachel Boyer of the Theatre Francais, Marguerite Durand, Editeur de la Fronde, Mlle. Richepin, and many others.
Mme. Marlef has the power of keen observation, so necessary to a painter of portraits. Although there is a certain element of soft tenderness in her pictures, the bold virility of her drawing misled the critics, who for a time believed that her name was used to conceal the personality of a man. A critic in the Paris _World_ writes of this artist: “She has exquisite color sense and delights in presenting that _exaltation de la vie_, that love, radiance, and joy of life, which are at once the secret of the success and the keynote of the masterful canvases of Roll, in whose studio were first developed Claude Marlef’s delicate qualities of truthful perception in the portraiture of woman…. Her perceptions being rapid, she has a remarkable instantaneous insight, enabling her to fix the dominant feature and soul of expression in each of the various types among her numerous sitters.”
Mme. Marlef’s family name is Lefebure. Her husband died in 1891, the year after their marriage, and she then devoted herself to the serious study of painting, which she had practised from childhood. She first exhibited at the Salon, 1895, and has exhibited annually since then. In 1902 she sent her own portrait, and in 1903 that of Bessie Abbott, to the Exhibition of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
MARTIN DE CAMPO, VICTORIA. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Cadiz, her native city. In the different expositions of this and other Andalusian capitals she has exhibited since 1840 many works, including portraits, genre, historical pictures, and copies. Among them may be mentioned “Susanna in the Bath,” “David Playing the Harp before Saul,” a “Magdalen,” a “Cupid,” a “Boy with a Linnet,” and a “Nativity.” Some of these were awarded prizes. In the Chapel of Relics in the new Cathedral at Cadiz are her “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence” and a “Mater Dolorosa.”
MARTINEAU, EDITH. Associate of Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colors; member of the Hampstead Art Society. Born in Liverpool, where she made her first studies in the School of Art, and later became a pupil of the Royal Academy Schools, London.
Her pictures are not large and are principally figures or figures in landscape, and all in water-colors. She writes very modestly that so many are sold and in private hands that she will give no list of subjects.
MASSARI, LUIGIA. Medal at Piacenza, 1869, and several other medals from art societies. Born at Piacenza, 1810. Pupil of A. Gemmi. Her works are in a number of churches: “St. Martin” in the church at Altoe; “St. Philomena” in the church at Busseto; the “Madonna del Carmine” and “St. Anna” in the church at Monticelli d’Ongina. This artist was also famous for her beautiful embroidery, as seen in her altar-cloths, one of which is in the Guastafredda Chapel at Piacenza. The fruits and flowers produced by her needle are marvellously like those in her pictures.
MASSEY, MRS. GERTRUDE. Member of the Society of Miniaturists. Born in London, 1868. Has studied with private teachers in London and Paris.
This painter has made a specialty of miniatures and of pictures of dogs. She has been extensively employed by various members of the royal family, of whom she painted eleven miniatures, among which was one of the late Queen.
She sends me a list of several pictures of dogs and “Pets,” all belonging to titled English ladies; also a long list of miniatures of gentlemen, ladies, and children of high degree, several being of the royal family, in addition, I suppose, to the eleven mentioned above.
She writes me: “Constantly met King and Queen and other members. Sittings took place at Windsor Castle, Sandringham, Marlborough House, Osborne, and Balmoral. One dog died after first sitting; had to finish from dead dog. Live in charming little cottage with _genuine_ old-fashioned garden in St. John’s Wood.”
Mrs. Massey has exhibited at the Royal Academy and New Gallery, and has held a special exhibition of her pictures of dogs at the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London.
MASSIP, MARGUERITE. Member of the Society of Swiss Painters and Sculptors and of the Society of Arts and Letters, Geneva. Born at Geneva. Made her studies in Florence and Paris under the professors in the public schools. Her picture of “Le Buveur” is in the Museum of Geneva; “Five o’Clock Tea,” also in a Geneva Museum; “La Bohemienne” is at Nice; “The Engagement”–a dancer–at St. Gall, and a large number of portraits in various cities, belonging to their subjects and their families.
Her portrait of Mme. M. L. was very much praised when exhibited in proximity with the works of some of the famous French artists. One critic writes: “The painting is firm and brilliant. The hands are especially beautiful; we scarcely know to whom we can compare Mme. Massip, unless to M. Paul Dubois. They have the same love of art, the same soberness of tone, the same scorn of artifice…. The woman who has signed such a portrait is a great artist.” It is well known that the famous sculptor is a remarkable portraitist.
In a review of the Salon at Nice we read: “A portrait by Mme. Massip is a magnificent canvas, without a single stroke of the charlatan. The pose is simple and dignified; there is the serenity and repose of a woman no longer young, who makes no pretension to preserve her vanishing beauty; the costume, in black, is so managed that it would not appear superannuated nor ridiculous at any period. The execution is that of a great talent and an artistic conscience. It is not a portrait for a bedchamber, still less for a studio; it is a noble souvenir for a family, and should have a place in the salon, in which, around the hearth, three generations may gather, and in this serene picture may see the wife, the mother, and the grandmother, when they mourn the loss of her absolute presence.”
MASSOLIEN, ANNA. Born at Goerlitz, 1848. A pupil of G. Graef and of the School of Women Artists in Berlin. Her portraits of Field Marshal von Steinmetz, Brueckner, and G. Schmidt by their excellence assured the reputation of this artist, whose later portraits are greatly admired.
MATHILDE, PRINCESS. Medal at Paris Salon, 1865. Daughter of King Jerome Bonaparte. Born at Trieste, 1820; died at Paris, 1904. Pupil of Eugene Giraud. She painted genre subjects in water-colors. Her medal picture, “Head of a Young Girl,” is in the Luxembourg; “A Jewess of Algiers,” 1866, is in the Museum of Lille; “The Intrigue under the Portico of the Doge’s Palace” was painted in 1865.
MATHILDE CAROLINE, Grand Duchess of Hesse. Was born Princess of Bavaria. 1813-1863. Pupil of Dominik Onaglio. In the New Gallery at Munich are two of her pictures–“View of the Magdalen Chapel in the Garden at Nymphenburg,” 1832, and “Outlook on the Islands, Procida and Ischia,” 1836.
MATTON, IDA. Two grand prizes and a purse, also a travelling purse from the Government of Sweden; honorable mention at the Paris Salon, 1896; honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1900; prize for sculpture at the Union des femmes peintres et sculpteurs, 1903. Decorated with the “palmes academique” of President Loubet, 1903. Member of the Union des femmes peintres et sculpteurs, Paris. Born at Gefle, Sweden. Pupil of the Technical School, Stockholm, and of H. Chapu, A. Mercie, and D. Puech at Paris.
[Illustration: In Cemetery In Gefle, Sweden
MONUMENT FOR A TOMB
IDA MATTON]
Among the works of this artist are “Mama!” a statue in marble; “Loke,” a statue; “Dans les Vagues,” a marble bust; “Funeral Monument,” in bronze, in Gefle, Sweden; and a great number of portrait busts and various subjects in bas-relief.
At the Salon des Artistes Francais, 1902, she exhibited four portraits, and in 1903, “Confidence.”
MAURY, CORNELIA F. Member of St. Louis Artists’ Guild and Society of Western Artists. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pupil of St. Louis School of Fine Arts and of Julian Academy, under Collin and Merson. At the Salon of 1900 her picture, “Mother and Child,” was hung on the line.
Miss Maury has made an especial study of child life. Among her pictures are “Little Sister,” “Choir Boy,” “Late Breakfast,” and “First Steps.” The latter picture and the “Baby in a Go-Cart” have been published in the Copley Prints.
“Cornelia F. Maury is most successful in portrayals of childhood. Her small figures are simple, unaffected, with no suggestion of pose. They convey that delightful feeling of unconsciousness in the subject that is always so charming either in nature or in artistic expression. The pastel depicting the flaxen-haired child in blue dress drawing a tiny cart is exceedingly artistic, and the same may be said of a pastel showing a small child in a Dutch high-chair near a window. A third picture–also a pastel–represents a choir-boy in a red robe, red cap, and white surplice, sitting in a high-backed, carved chair, holding a book in his hand. Miss Maury really has produced nothing finer than this last. It is a most excellent work.”–_The Mirror, St. Louis,_ April 10, 1902.
MAYREDER-OBERMAYER, ROSE. Born in Vienna, 1858. Pupil of Darnaut and Charmont. The works of this successful painter of flowers and still-life have been exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, and Chicago. She has a broad, sure touch quite unusual in water-colors. She has also executed some notable decorative works, one of which, “November,” has attracted much attention.
MCCROSSAN, MARY. Silver and bronze medals, Liverpool; silver medal and honorable mention, Paris. Has exhibited at Royal Academy, London, at Royal Institute of Oil Colors, and many other English and Scotch exhibitions. Member of Liverpool Academy of Arts and of the Liverpool Sketching Club. Born in Liverpool. Studied at Liverpool School of Art under John Finnie; Paris, under M. Delecluse; St. Ives, Cornwall, under Julius Ollson.
The principal works of this artist are marine subjects and landscapes, and are mostly in private collections.
In the _Studio,_ November, 1900, we read: “Miss McCrossan’s exhibition of pictures and sketches displayed a pleasant variety of really clever work, mostly in oils, with a few water-colors and pastels. In each medium her color is strong, rich, and luminous, and her drawing vigorous and certain.
“While this artist’s landscape subjects are intelligently selected and attractively rendered, there is unusual merit in her marine pictures, composed mainly from the fisher-craft of the Isle of Man and the neighborhood of St. Ives, and recording effects of brilliant sunshine lighting up white herring boats lying idly on intensely reflective blue sea, or aground on the harbor mud at low tide. There is a fascination in the choice color treatment of these characteristic pictures.”
MCLAUGHLIN, MARY LOUISE M. Honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1878; silver medal, Paris Exposition, 1889; gold medal, Atlanta, 1895; bronze medal, Buffalo, 1900. Member of the Society of Arts, London; honorary member of National Mineral Painters’ League, Cincinnati. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pupil of Cincinnati Art Academy and of H. F. Farny and Frank Duveneck in private classes.
Miss McLaughlin has painted in oil and water-colors and exhibited in various places, as indicated by the honors she has received. Having practised under- and over-glaze work on pottery, as well as porcelain etching and decorative etching on metals, she is now devoting herself to making the porcelain known as Losanti Ware.
Of a recent exhibition, 1903, a critic wrote: “Perhaps the most beautiful and distinguished group in the exhibition is that of Miss McLaughlin, one of the earliest artistic workers in clay of the United States. She sends a collection of lovely porcelain vases, of a soft white tone and charming in contour. Some of these have open-work borders, others are decorated in relief, and the designs are tinted with delicate jade greens, dark blues, or salmon pinks. This ware goes by the name of Losanti, from the early name of Cincinnati, L’Osantiville.”
This artist has written several books on china painting and pottery decoration.
MCMANUS MANSFIELD, BLANCHE. Diplomas from the New Orleans Centennial and the Woman’s Department, Chicago, 1903. Member of the New Vagabonds, London, and the Touring Club of France. Born in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, this artist has made her studies in London and Paris. Her principal work has been done in book illustrations. The following list gives some of her most important publications:
“Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.” De Luxe edition in color. New York, 1899.
“The Calendar of Omar Khayyam.” In color. New York, 1900.
“The Altar Service.” Thirty-six wood-cut blocks printed on Japan vellum. London, 1902.
“The Coronation Prayer-Book.” (Wood-cut borders.) Oxford University Press, 1902.
“Cathedrals of Northern France.” In collaboration with Francis Miltoun. Boston and London, 1903.
“Cathedrals of Southern France.” In collaboration with Francis Miltoun. Sold for publication in London and Boston, 1904.
“A Dante Calendar.” London, 1903.
“A Rubaiyat Calendar.” Boston, 1903.
“The King’s Classics.” (Designs and Decorations.) London, 1902-1903.
“The Book of Days.” A Calendar. Sold in London for 1904.
After speaking of several works by Miss McManus, a notice from London says: “A more difficult or at least a more intricate series were the designs cut on wood for ‘The Altar Service Book,’ just issued in London by that newly founded venture, the De La More Press; which has drawn unto itself such scholars as Dr. Furnival, Professor Skeat, and Israel Gollancz. These designs by Miss McManus were printed direct from the wood blocks in very limited editions, on genuine vellum, on Japanese vellum, and a small issue on a real sixteenth-century hand-made paper. The various editions were immediately taken up in London on publication; hence it is unlikely that copies will be generally seen in America.
[Illustration: DELFT
BLANCHE McMANUS MANSFIELD]
“We learn, however, that the original wood blocks will be shown at the St. Louis Exposition, in the section to be devoted to the work of American artists resident abroad. We suggest that all lovers of latter-day bookmaking ‘make a note of it,’ recalling meanwhile that it was this successful American designer who produced also the decorative wood-cut borders and initials which were used in ‘The Coronation Prayer-Book of King Edward VII.,’ issued from the celebrated Oxford University Press. There were forty initials or headings, embodying the coronation regalia, including the crown, sceptre, rose, thistle, shamrock, etc. The magnificent cover for the book was also designed by this artist.
“Among the American artists who have made a distinctive place in art circles, not only in America but on ‘the other side,’ is Mrs. M. F. Mansfield, formerly Blanche McManus of Woodville, Mississippi.
“In London she is widely known as a skilful, able, and versatile artist, and her remarkable success there is an illustration of ‘the American invasion.’ Little has been written in America, especially in the South, of what this talented Southern woman has accomplished. She has never sought personal advertisement; on the contrary, she has shrunk from any kind of publicity–even that which would have accrued from a proper valuation of her work.
“She is one of those artists whose talent is equalled only by her modesty, who, enamoured of her art and aiming at a patient, painstaking realization of her ideal, has been content to work on in silence. In the estimation of art connoisseurs, Blanche McManus is an artist of unquestionable talent and varied composition, who has already done much striking work. Her execution in the various branches has attracted international attention.
“She paints well in water-colors and in oil, and her etching is considered excellent. Her drawing is stamped good, and every year she has showed rapid improvement in design. She is a highly cultivated woman, with a close and accurate observation. A sincere appreciation of nature was revealed in her earliest efforts, and for some years she devoted much time to its study.”
Moring’s _Quarterly_ says in regard to the special work which Mrs. Mansfield has done: “It is so seldom that an artist is able to take in hand what may be termed the entire decoration of a book–including in that phrase cover, illustration, colophon, head- and tail-pieces, initial letters, and borders–that it is a pleasure to find in the subject of our paper a lady who may be said to be capable of taking all these points into consideration in the embellishment of a volume.”
MEDICI, MARIE DE’. Wife of Henry IV. Born at Florence, 1573; died at Cologne, 1642. A portrait of herself, engraved on wood, bears the legend, “Maria Medici F. MDLXXXII.” Another portrait of a girl, attributed to her, is signed, “L. O. 1617.” It may be considered a matter of grave doubt whether the nine-year-old girl drew and engraved with her own hand the first-named charming picture, which has been credited to her with such frank insouciance.
MENGS, ANNA MARIA. Member of the Academy of San Fernando. She was a daughter of Anton Rafael Mengs, and was born in Dresden in 1751, where she received instruction from her father. In 1777 she married the engraver Salvador Carmona in Rome, and went with him to Spain, where she died in 1790. Portraits and miniatures of excellent quality were executed by her, and on them her reputation rests.
MERIAN, MARIA SIBYLLA. Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1647. This artist merits our attention, although her art was devoted to an unusual purpose. Her father was a learned geographer and engraver whose published works are voluminous. Her maternal grandfather was the eminent engraver, Theodore de Bry or Brie.
From her childhood Anna Sibylla Merian displayed an aptitude for drawing and a special interest in insect life. The latter greatly disturbed her mother, but she could not turn the child’s attention from entomology, and was forced to allow that study to become her chief pursuit.
The flower painter, Abraham Mignon, was her master in drawing and painting; but at an early age, before her studies were well advanced, she married an architect, John Andrew Graf, of Nuremberg, with whom she lived unhappily. She passed nearly twenty years in great seclusion, and, as she tells us in the preface to one of her books, she devoted these years to the examination and study of various insects, watching their transformations and making drawings from them. Many of these were in colors on parchment and were readily sold to connoisseurs.
Her first published work was called “The Wonderful Transformations of Caterpillars.” It appeared in 1679, was fully illustrated by copper plate engravings, executed by herself from her own designs. About 1684 she separated from her husband, and with her daughters returned to Frankfort. Many interesting stories are told of her life there.
She made a journey to Friesland and was a convert to the doctrines of Labadie, but she was still devoted to her study and research. She was associated with the notable men of her time, and became the friend of the father of Rachel Ruysch. Although Madame Merian, who had taken her maiden name, was seventeen years older than the gifted flower painter, she became to her an example of industry and devotion to study.
Madame Merian had long desired to examine the insects of Surinam, and in 1699, by the aid of the Dutch Government, she made the journey–of which a French poet wrote:
“Sibylla a Surinam va chercher la nature, Avec l’esprit d’un Sage, et le coeur d’un Heros”
–which indicates the view then held of a journey which would now attract no attention.
While in Guiana some natives brought her a box filled with “lantern flies,” as they were then called. The noise they made at night was so disturbing that she liberated them, and the flies, regaining liberty, flashed out their most brilliant light, for which Madame Merian was unprepared, and in her surprise dropped the box. From this circumstance a most exaggerated idea obtained concerning the illuminating power of the flies.
The climate of Surinam was so unhealthy for Madame Merian that she could remain there but two years, and in that time she gathered the materials for her great work called “Metamorphoses Insectorum Surinamensium,” etc. The illustrations were her own, and she pictured many most interesting objects–animals and vegetables as well as insects–which were quite unknown in Europe. Several editions of this book were published both in German and French. Her plates are still approved and testify to the scope and thoroughness of her research, as well as to her powers as an artist.
Her chief work, however, was a “History of the Insects of Europe, Drawn from Nature, and Explained by Maria Sibylla Merian.” The illustrations of this work were beautiful and of great interest, as the insects, from their first state to their last, were represented with the plants and flowers which they loved, each object being correctly and tastefully pictured. Most of the original paintings for these works are in the British Museum. In the Vienna Gallery is a “Basket of Flowers” by this artist, and in the Basle Museum a picture of “Locust and Chafers.”
The daughters of this learned artist naturalist, Joanna Maria Helena and Dorothea, shared the pursuits and labors of their mother, and it was her intention to publish their drawings as an appendix to her works. She did not live to do this, and later the daughters published a separate volume of their own.
This extraordinary woman, whose studies and writings added so much to the knowledge of her time, was neither beautiful nor graceful. Her portraits present a woman with hard and heavy features, her hair in short curls surmounted by a stiff and curious headdress, made of folds of some black stuff.
MERRITT, MRS. ANNA LEA. Honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1889; two medals and a diploma, Chicago Exposition, 1893. In 1890 her picture of “Love Locked Out” was purchased by the Chantry fund, London, for two hundred and fifty pounds. This honor has been accorded to few women, and of these I think Mrs. Merritt was first. Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. Born in Philadelphia. Pupil of Heinrich Hoffman in Dresden, and of Henry Merritt–whom she married–in London.
Mrs. Merritt has a home in Hampshire, England, but is frequently in Philadelphia, where she exhibits her pictures, which have also been seen at the Royal Academy since 1871.
This artist is represented by her pictures in the National Gallery of British Art, in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and by her portrait of Mr. James Russell Lowell in Memorial Hall, Harvard University.
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MICHIS, MARIA. See Cattaneo.
MILBACHER, LOUISE VON. Prize at Berlin in 1886. Born at Boehmischbrod, 1845. Pupil of Poenninger and Eisenmenger. A painter of portraits and of sacred and genre subjects. Three of her portraits are well known–those of Baron Thienen, General von Neuwirth, and Baron Eber-Eschenbach. The altar-piece in the chapel of the Vienna Institute, a “Holy Family,” is by this artist. She has also painted still-life and animal subjects.
MODIGLIANI, SIGNORINA CORINNA. Silver medal at Turin Exposition, 1898; silver medal at the Exposition of Feminine Art, 1899, 1900; diploma at Leghorn, 1901; gold medal. Member of the International Artistic Association. Born in Rome. Pupil of Professore Commendatore Pietro Vanni.
This artist has exhibited her works in the Expositions of Rome, Turin, Milan, Leghorn, Munich, Petersburg, and Paris since 1897, and will contribute to the St. Louis Exposition. Her pictures have been sold in Paris, London, and Ireland, as well as in Rome and other Italian cities, where many of them are in the collections of distinguished families.
MOLDURA, LILLA. A Neapolitan painter. Her father was an Italian and her mother a Spaniard. She was instructed in the elements of art by various excellent teachers, and then studied oil painting under Maldarelli and water-color under Mancini. She has often exhibited pictures in Naples, to the satisfaction of both artists and critics, and has also won success in London. She has been almost equally happy in views of the picturesque Campagna, and in interiors, both in oil and water-colors. The interior of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, in the Church of the Gerolamini, is strong in execution and good in drawing and color.
MOeLLER, AGNES SLOTT. Born in 1862. Resides in Copenhagen. The especial work of this artist, by which her reputation is world-wide, is the illustration of old legends for children’s books.
MONTALBA, CLARA. Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colors, London, and of the Belgian Society of Water-Colorists. Born in Cheltenham, 1842. Pupil of Isabey in Paris. Her professional life has been spent in London and Venice. She has sent her pictures to the Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery exhibitions since 1879. “Blessing a Tomb, Westminster,” was at the Philadelphia Exposition, 1876; “Corner of St. Mark’s” and “Fishing Boats, Venice,” were at Paris, 1878.
In 1874 she exhibited at the Society of British Artists, “Il Giardino Publico”–the Public Garden–of which a writer in the _Art Journal_ said: “‘Il Giardino Publico’ stands foremost among the few redeeming features of the exhibition. In delicate perception of natural beauty the picture suggests the example of Corot. Like the great Frenchman, Miss Montalba strives to interpret the sadder moods of nature, when the wind moves the water a little mournfully and the outlines of the objects become uncertain in the filmy air.”
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MORETTO, EMMA. Venetian painter, exhibited at Naples, in 1877, “Abbey of St. Gregory at Venice”; at Turin, in 1880, a fine view of the “Canal of the Giudecca,” and “Canal of S. Giorgio”; at the National Exposition in Milan, 1881, “Sunset” and a marine view; at Rome, in 1883, “Excursion on the Lagoon.” Still others of the same general character are: “A Gondola,” “At St. Mark’s,” “Grand Canal,” “Morning at Sea,” etc.
MORON, THERESE CONCORDIA. Born in Dresden, 1725; died in Rome, 1806. Pupil, of her father, Ismael Mengs. Her attention was divided between enamel painting and pastel, much of the latter being miniature work. In the Dresden Gallery are two of her pastel portraits and two copies in miniature of Correggio, viz., a half-length portrait of herself and a portrait of her sister, Julie Mengs; a copy of St. Jerome, or “The Day”–original in Parma–and “The Night.”
A curious story has recently been published to the effect that in 1767 this artist sent word to Duke Xavier of Saxony that during the Seven Years’ War she painted a copy in miniature of Correggio’s “Holy Mother with the Christ Child, Mary Magdalen, Hieronymus, and Two Angels,” which she sent by Cardinal Albani to the Duke’s father–Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony and Augustus III. of Poland–at Warsaw. It was claimed that two hundred and fifty ducats were due her. Apparently the demand was not met; but, on the other hand, the lady seems to have received for some years a pension of three hundred thalers from the Electorate of Saxony without making any return. Probably her claim was satisfied by this pension.
MOSER, MARY. One of the original members of the London Academy. The daughter of a German artist, who resided in London. She was as well known for her wit as for her art. A friend of Fuseli, she was said to be as much in love with him as he was in love with Angelica Kauffman. Dr. Johnson sometimes met Miss Moser at the house of Nollekens, where they made merry over a cup of tea.
Queen Charlotte commissioned this painter to decorate a chamber, for which work she paid more than nine hundred pounds, and was so well pleased that she complimented the artist by commanding the apartment to be called “Miss Moser’s Room.”
MOTT, MRS. ALICE. Born at Walton on Thames. Pupil of the Slade School and Royal Academy in London, and of M. Charles Chaplin in Paris in his studio. A miniaturist whose works are much esteemed. Her work is life-like, artistic, and strong in drawing, color, and composition. After finishing her study under masters she took up miniature painting by herself, studying the works of old miniaturists.
Recently she writes me: “I have departed from the ordinary portrait miniature, and am now painting what I call picture miniatures. For instance, I am now at work on the portrait of Miss D. C., who is in old-fashioned dress, low bodice, and long leg-of-mutton sleeves. She is represented as running in the open, with sky and tree background. She has a butterfly net over her shoulder, which floats out on the wind; she is looking up and smiling; her hair and her sash are blown out. It is to be called, ‘I’d be a Butterfly.’ The dress is the yellow of the common butterfly. It is a large miniature. I hope to send it, with others, to the St. Louis Exposition.”
Her miniatures are numerous and in private hands. A very interesting one belongs to the Bishop of Ripon and is a portrait of Mrs. Carpenter, his mother.
MUNTZ, LAURA A.
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MURRAY, ELIZABETH. Member of the Institute of Painters in Water-Colors, London, and of the American Society of Water-Color Painters, New York. Her pictures are of genre subjects, many of them being of Oriental figures. Among these are “Music in Morocco,” “A Moorish Saint,” “The Greek Betrothed,” etc. Other subjects are “The Gipsy Queen,” “Dalmatian Peasant,” “The Old Story in Spain,” etc.
NATHAN, SIGNORA LILIAH ASCOLI. Rome.
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NEGRO, TERESA. Born in Turin, where she resides. She has made a study of antique pottery and has been successful in its imitation. Her vases and amphorae have been frequently exhibited and are praised by connoisseurs and critics. At the Italian National Exposition, 1880, she exhibited a terra-cotta reproduction of a classic design, painted in oils; also a wooden dish which resembled an antique ceramic.
NELLI, PLAUTILLA. There is a curious fact connected with two women artists of Florence in the middle of the sixteenth century. In that city of pageants–where Ghirlandajo saw, in the streets, in churches, and on various ceremonial occasions, the beautiful women with whom he still makes us acquainted–these ladies, daughters of noble Florentine families, were nuns.
No Shakespearean dissector has, to my knowledge, affirmed that Hamlet’s advice to Ophelia, “Get thee to a nunnery,” and his assertion, “I have heard of your paintings, too,” prove that Ophelia was an artist and a nunnery a favorable place in which to set up a studio. Yet I think I could make this assumption as convincing as many that have been “proved” by the _post obitum_ atomizers of the great poet’s every word.
But we have not far to seek for the reasons which led Plautilla Nelli and Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi to choose the conventual life. The subjects of their pictures prove that their thoughts were fixed on a life quite out of tune with that which surrounded them in their homes. If they pictured rich draperies and rare gems, it was but to adorn with them the Blessed Virgin Mother and the holy saints, in token of their belief that all of pomp and value in this life can but faintly symbolize the glory of the life to come.
Plautilla Nelli, born in Florence in 1523, entered the convent of St. Catherine of Siena, in her native city, and in time became its abbess. Patiently, with earnest prayer, she studied and copied the works of Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto, until she was able to paint an original “Adoration of the Magi” of such excellence as to secure her a place among the painters of Florence.
Many of her pictures remained in her convent, but she also painted a “Madonna Surrounded by Saints” for the choir of Santa Lucia at Pistoja. There are pictures attributed to Plautilla Nelli in Berlin–notably the “Visit of Martha to Christ,”–which are characterized by the earnestness, purity, and grace of her beloved Fra Bartolommeo. Her “Adoration of the Wise Men” is at Parma; the “Descent from the Cross” in Florence; the “Last Supper” in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.
There are traditions of her success as a teacher of painting in her convent, but of this we have no exact knowledge such as we have of the work of the “Suor Plautilla,” the name by which she came to be known in all Italy.
NEMES-RANSONNETT, COUNTESS ELISA. Born at Vienna, 1843. She studied successively with Vastagh, Lulos, Aigner, Schilcher, Lenbach, Angeli, and J. Benczur, and opened her studio at Kun Szent Miklos near Budapest. The “Invitation to the Wedding” was well received, and her portraits of Schiller and Perczel are in public galleries–the former in the Vienna Kuenstlerhaus, and the latter in the Deputy House at Budapest.
NEWCOMB, MARIA GUISE. Born in New Jersey. Pupil of Schenck, Chialiva, and Edouard Detaille in Paris. Travelled in Algeria and the Sahara, studying the Arab and his horses. Very few artists can be compared with Miss Newcomb in representing horses. She has a genius for portraying this animal, and understands its anatomy as few painters have done.
She was but a child when sketching horses and cattle was her pastime, and so great was her fondness for it that the usual dolls and other toys were crowded out of her life. Her studies in Paris were comprehensive, and her work shows the results and places her among the distinguished painters of animals.
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NEY, ELISABETH. Born in 1830. After studying at the Academy in Berlin, this sculptor went to Munich, where she was devoted to her art. She then came to Texas and remained some years in America. She returned to Berlin in 1897. Among her best known works are busts of Garibaldi, of J. Grimm, 1863, “Prometheus Bound,” 1868, and a statue of Louis II. of Bavaria.
NICHOLLS, MRS. RHODA HOLMES. Queen’s Scholarship, Bloomsbury Art School, London; gold medal, Competitive Prize Fund Exhibition, New York; medal, Chicago Exposition, 1893; medal, Tennessee Exposition, 1897; bronze medal at Buffalo Exposition, 1901. Member of American Water-Color Society, New York Water-Color Society, Woman’s Art Club, American Society of Miniature Painters, Pen and Brush Club; honorable member of Woman’s Art Club, Canada. Born in Coventry, England. Pupil of Bloomsbury School of Art, London; of Cannerano and Vertunni in Rome, where she was elected to the Circolo Artistico and the Societa degli Aquarelliste.
Her pictures are chiefly figure subjects, among which are “Those Evening Bells,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “A Daughter of Eve,” “Indian after the Chase,” “Searching the Scriptures,” etc.
In the _Studio_, March, 1901, in writing of the exhibition of the American Water-Color Society, the critic says: “In her two works, ‘Cherries’ and ‘A Rose,’ Mrs. Rhoda Holmes Nicholls shows us a true water-color executed by a master hand. The subject of each is slight; each stroke of her brush is made once and for all, with a precision and dash that are inspiriting; and you have in each painting the sparkle, the deft lightness of touch, the instantaneous impression of form and coloring that a water-color should have.”
[Illustration: AN INDIAN AFTER THE CHASE
RHODA HOLMES NICHOLS]
Mrs. Nicholls is also known as an illustrator. Harold Payne says of her: “Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, although an illustrator of the highest order, cannot be strictly classed as one, for the reason that she is equally great in every other branch of art. However, as many of her best examples of water-colors are ultimately reproduced for illustrative purposes, and as even her oil paintings frequently find their way into the pages of art publications, it is not wrong to denominate her as an illustrator, and that of the most varied and prolific type. She may, like most artists, have a specialty, but a walk through her studio and a critical examination of her work–ranging all along the line of oil paintings, water-colors of the most exquisite type, wash drawings, crayons, and pastels–would scarcely result in discovering her specialty…. As a colorist she has few rivals, and her acute knowledge of drawing and genius for composition are apparent in everything she does.”
NICHOLS, CATHERINE MAUDE, R. E. The pictures of this artist have been hung on the line at the Royal Academy exhibitions a dozen times at least. From Munich she has received an official letter thanking her for sending her works to exhibitions in that city. Fellow of the Royal Painter-Etchers’ Society; president of the Woodpecker Art Club, Norwich; Member of Norwich Art Circle and of a Miniature Painters’ Society and the Green Park Club, London. Born in Norwich. Self-taught. Has worked in the open at Barbizon, in Normandy, in Cornwall, Devon, London, and all around the east coast of Norfolk.
Miss Nichols has held three exhibitions of her pictures both in oil and water-colors in London. She has executed more than a hundred copper plates, chiefly dry-points. The pictures in oils and water-colors, the miniatures and the proofs of her works have found purchasers, almost without exception, and are in private hands. Most of the plates she has retained.
Miss Nichols has illustrated some books, her own poems being of the number, as well as her “Old Norwich.” She has also made illustrations for journals and magazines.
One is impressed most agreeably with the absence of mannerism in Miss Nichols’ work, as well as with the pronounced artistic treatment of her subjects. Her sketches of sea and river scenery are attractive; the views from her home county, Norfolk, have a delightful feeling about them. “Norwich River at Evening” is not only a charming picture, but shows, in its perspective and its values, the hand of a skilful artist. “Mousehold Heath,” showing a rough and broken country, is one of her strongest pictures in oils; “Stretching to the Sea” is also excellent. Among the water-colors “Strangers’ Hall,” Norwich, and “Fleeting Clouds,” merit attention, as do a number of others. One could rarely see so many works, with such varied subjects, treated in oils, water-colors, dry point, etc., by the same artist.
I quote the following paragraph from the _Studio_ of April, 1903: “Miss C. M. Nichols is an artist of unquestionable talent, and her work in the various mediums she employs deserves careful attention. She paints well both in water-colors and in oil, and her etchings are among the best that the lady artists of our time have produced. Her drawing is good, her observation is close and accurate, and she shows year by year an improvement in design. Miss Nichols was for several years the only lady fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers.”
Her “Brancaster Staithe” and “Fir Trees, Crown Point,” dry points, are in the Norwich Art Gallery, presented by Sir Seymour Haden, president of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. Two of her works, a large oil painting of “Earlham” and a water-color of “Strangers’ Hall,” have been purchased by subscription and presented to the Norwich Castle Art Gallery.
NICOLAU Y PARODY, TERESA. Member of the Academy of San Fernando and of the Academy of San Carlos of Valencia. This artist, who was born in Madrid, early showed an enthusiasm for painting, which she at first practised in various styles, but gradually devoted herself entirely to miniature. She has contributed to many public exhibitions, and has received many prizes and honorable mentions, as well as praise from the critics. Among her portraits are those of Isabel de Braganza, Washington, Mme. de Montespan, Mme. Dubarry, Queen Margaret of Austria, and Don Carlos, son of Philip II. Her other works include a “Magdalen in the Desert,” “Laura and Petrarch,” “Joseph with the Christ-Child,” “Francis I. at the Battle of Pavia,” and many good copies after celebrated painters.
NIEDERHAeUSEN, MLLE. SOPHIE. Medal at the Swiss National Exposition, 1896. Member of the Exposition permanente de l’Athenee, Geneva. Born at Geneva. Pupil of Professor Wymann and M. Albert Gos, and of M. and Mme. Demont-Breton in France.
Mlle. Niederhaeusen paints landscapes principally, and has taken her subjects from the environs of Geneva, in the Valais, and in Pas-de-Calais, France.
Her picture, called the “Bord du Lac de Geneve,” was purchased by the city and is in the Rath Museum. She also paints flowers, and uses water-colors as well as oils.
NOBILI, ELENA. Silver medal at the Beatrice Exposition, Florence, 1890. Born in Florence, where she resides. She is most successful in figure subjects. She is sympathetic in her treatment of them and is able to impart to her works a sentiment which appeals to the observer. Among her pictures are “Reietti,” “The Good-Natured One,” “September,” “In the Country,” “Music,” and “Contrasts.”
NORMAND, MRS. ERNEST–HENRIETTA RAE. Medals in Paris and at Chicago
Exposition, 1893. Born in London, 1859. Daughter of T. B. Rae, Esquire. Married the artist, Ernest Normand, 1884. Pupil of Queen’s Square School of Art, Heatherley’s, British Museum, and Royal Academy Schools. Began the study of art at the age of thirteen. First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and has sent important pictures there annually since that time.
Mrs. Normand executed decorative frescoes in the Royal Exchange, London, the subject being “Sir Richard Whittington and His Charities.”
In the past ten years she has exhibited “Mariana,” 1893; “Psyche at the Throne of Venus,” 1894; “Apollo and Daphne,” 1895; “Summer,” 1896; “Isabella,” 1897; “Diana and Calisto,” 1899; “Portrait of Marquis of Dufferin and Ava,” 1901; “Lady Winifred Renshaw and Son,” and the “Sirens,” 1903, which is a picture of three nude enchantresses, on a sandy shore, watching a distant galley among rocky islets.
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NOURSE, ELIZABETH. Medal at Chicago Exposition, 1903; Nashville Exposition, 1897; Carthage Institute, Tunis, 1897; elected associate of the Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895; silver medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; elected Societaire des Beaux-Arts, 1901. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she began her studies, later going to the Julian Academy, under Boulanger and Lefebvre, and afterward studying with Carolus Duran and Henner. This artist idealizes the subjects of every-day, practical life, and gives them a poetic quality which is an uncommon and delightful attainment.
At the Salon des Beaux-Arts, 1902, Miss Nourse exhibited “The Children,” “Evening Toilet of the Baby,” “In the Shade at Pen’march,” “Brother and Sister at Pen’march,” “The Madeleine Chapel at Pen’march.” In 1903, “Our Lady of Joy, Pen’march,” “Around the Cradle,” “The Little Sister,” and “A Breton Interior.”
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OAKLEY, VIOLET. Member of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Water-Color Club, Plastic Club, Philadelphia. Born in New Jersey, but has lived in New York, where she studied at the Art Students’ League under Carroll Beckwith. Pupil of Collin and Aman-Jean in Paris and Charles Lasar in England; also in Philadelphia of Joseph de Camp, Henry Thouron, Cecilia Beaux, and Howard Pyle.
Miss Oakley has executed mural decorations, a mosaic reredos, and five stained-glass windows in the Church of All Saints, New York City, and a window in the Convent of the Holy Child, at Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.
In the summer of 1903 she was commissioned to decorate the walls of the Governor’s reception room in the new Capitol at Harrisburg. Before engaging in this work–the first of its kind to be confided to an American woman–Miss Oakley went to Italy to study mural painting. She then went to England to thoroughly inform herself concerning the historical foundation of her subject, the history of the earliest days of Pennsylvania. At Oxford and in London she found what she required, and on her return to America established herself in a studio in Villa Nova, Pennsylvania, to make her designs for “The Romance of the Founding of the State,” which is to be painted on a frieze five feet deep. The room is seventy by thirty feet, and sixteen feet in height.
The decoration of this Capitol is to be more elaborate and costly than that of any other public edifice in the United States. In mural decoration Miss Oakley will be associated with Edwin A. Abbey, but the Governor’s room is to be her work entirely, and will doubtless occupy her during several years.
Mr Charles A. Caffin, in his article upon the exhibition of the New York Water-Color Club, January, 1904, says: “Miss Oakley has had considerable experience in designing stained-glass windows, and has reproduced in some of her designs for book covers a corresponding treatment of the composition, with an attempt, not very logical or desirable, considering the differences between paint and glass, to reproduce also something of her window color schemes…. But for myself, her cover, in which some girls are picking flowers, is far more charming in its easy grace of composition, choice gravity of color, and spontaneity of feeling. Here is revealed a very _naive_ imagination, free of any obsessions.”
OCCIONI, SIGNORA LUCILLA MARZOLO. Diploma of gold medal at the
Women’s Exhibition, Earl’s Court, London, 1900. Born in Trieste. Pupil, in Rome, of Professor Giuseppe Ferrari.
This artist paints figure subjects, portraits, landscapes, and flowers, in both oils and water-colors, and also makes pen-drawings. Her works are in many private galleries. She gives me no list of subjects. Her pictures have been praised by critics.
O’CONNELL, FREDERIQUE EMILIE AUGUSTE MIETHE. Born in Potsdam.
1823-1885. She passed her early life in her native city, having all the advantages of a solid and brilliant education. She early exhibited a love of drawing and devoted herself to the study of anatomical plates. She soon designed original subjects and introduced persons of her own imagination, which early marked her as powerful in her fancy and original in her manner of rendering her ideas.
A picture of “Raphael and the Fornarina,” which she executed at the age of fifteen, was so satisfactory as to determine her fate, and she was allowed to study art.
When about eighteen years old she became the pupil of Charles Joseph Begas, a very celebrated artist of Berlin. Under his supervision she painted her first picture, called the “Day of the Dupes,” which, though full of faults, had also virtues enough to secure much attention in the exhibition. It was first hung in a disadvantageous position, but the crowd discovered its merits and would have it noticed. She received a complimentary letter from the Academy of Berlin, and the venerable artist Cornelius made her a visit of congratulation.
About 1844 she married and removed to Brussels. Here she came into an entirely new atmosphere and her manner of painting was changed. She sought to free herself from all outer influence and to express her own feeling. She studied color especially, and became an imitator of Rubens. She gained in Brussels all the medals of the Belgian expositions, and there began two historical pictures, “Peter the Great and Catherine” and “Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great.” These were not finished until after her removal to Paris in 1853. They were bought by Prince Demidoff for the Russian Government.
She obtained her first triumph in Paris, at the Salon of 1853, by a portrait of Rachel. She represented the famous actress dressed entirely in white, with the worn expression which her professional exertions and the fatal malady from which she was already suffering had given to her remarkable face. The critics had no words for this portrait which were not words of praise, and two years later, in 1855, Madame O’Connell reached the height of her talent. “A Faunesse,” as it was called, in the exposition of that year, was a remarkable work, and thus described by Barty:
“A strong and beautiful young woman was seated near a spring, where beneath the shade of the chestnut trees the water lilies spread themselves out upon the stream which flowed forth. She was nude and her flesh palpitated beneath the caresses of the sun. With feminine caprice she wore a bracelet of pearls of the style of the gold workers of the Renaissance. Her black hair had lights of golden brown upon it, and she opened her great brown eyes with an expression of indifference. A half smile played upon her rosy lips and lessened the oval of the face like that of the ‘Dancing Faun.’ The whole effect of the lines of the figure was bold and gave an appearance of youth, the extremities were studiously finished, the skin was fine, and the whole tournure elegant. It was a Faunesse of Fontainebleau of the time of the Valois.”
Mme. O’Connell then executed several fine portraits–two of Rachel, one of M. O’Connell, others of Charles Edward and Theophile Gautier, which were likened to works of Vandyck, and a portrait in crayon of herself which was a _chef-d’oeuvre_. She excelled in rendering passionate natures; she found in her palette the secret of that pallor which spreads itself over the faces of those devoted to study–the fatigues of days and nights without sleep; she knew how to kindle the feverish light in the eyes of poets and of the women of society. She worked with great freedom, used a thick pate in which she brushed freely and left the ridges thus made in the colors; then, later, she put over a glaze, and all was done. Her etchings were also executed with great freedom, and many parts, especially the hair, were remarkably fine. She finished numerous etchings, among which a “St. Magdalen in the Desert” and a “Charity Surrounded by Children” are worthy of particular notice.
After Madame O’Connell removed to Paris she opened a large atelier and received many pupils. It was a most attractive place, with gorgeous pieces of antique furniture, loaded with models of sculpture, books, albums, engravings, and so on, while draperies, tapestries, armor, and ornaments in copper and brass all lent their colors and effects to enhance the attractions of the place. Many persons of rank and genius were among the friends of the artist and she was much in society.
In spite of all her talent and all her success the end of Madame O’Connell’s life was sad beyond expression. Her health suffered, her reason tottered and faded out, yet life remained and she was for years in an asylum for the insane. Everything that had surrounded her in her Paris home was sold at auction. No time was given and no attempt was made to bring her friends together. No one who had known or loved her was there to shed a tear or to bear away a memento of her happy past. All the beautiful things of which we have spoken were sacrificed and scattered as unconscionably as if she had never loved or her friends enjoyed them.
In the busy world of Paris no one remembered the brilliant woman who had flashed upon them, gained her place among them, and then disappeared. They recalled neither her genius nor her womanly qualities which they had admired, appreciated, and so soon forgotten!
OOSTERWYCK, MARIA VAN. The seventeenth century is remarkable for the perfection attained in still-life and flower painting. The most famous masters in this art were William van Aelst of Delft, the brothers De Heem of Utrecht, William Kalf and the Van Huysums of Amsterdam. The last of this name, however, Jan van Huysum, belongs to the next century.
Maria van Oosterwyck and Rachel Ruysch disputed honors with the above named and are still famous for their talents.
The former was a daughter of a preacher of the reformed religion. She was born at Nootdorp, near Delft, in 1630. She was the pupil of Jan David de Heem, and her pictures were remarkable for accuracy in drawing, fine coloring, and an admirable finish.
Louis XIV. of France, William III. of England, the Emperor Leopold of Germany, and Augustus I. of Poland gave her commissions for pictures. Large prices were paid her in a most deferential manner, as if the tributes of friendship rather than the reward of labor, and to these generous sums were added gifts of jewels and other precious objects.
Of Maria van Oosterwyck Kugler writes: “In my opinion she does not occupy that place in the history of the art of this period that she deserves, which may be partly owing to the rarity of her pictures, especially in public galleries. For although her flower pieces are weak in arrangement and often gaudy in the combination of color, she yet represents her flowers with the utmost truth of drawing, and with a depth, brilliancy, and juiciness of local coloring _unattained by any other flower painter_”
A picture in the Vienna Gallery of a sunflower with tulips and poppies, in glowing color, is probably her best work in a public collection. Her pictures are also in the galleries of Dresden, Florence, Carlsruhe, Copenhagen, the Schwerin Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
There is a romantic story told of Maria van Oosterwyck, as follows. William van Aelst, the painter of exquisite pictures of still-life, fruits, glass, and objects in gold and silver, was a suitor for her hand. She did not love him, but wishing not to be too abrupt in her refusal, she required, as a condition of his acceptance, that he should work ten hours a day during a year. This he readily promised to do. His studio being opposite that of Maria, she watched narrowly for the days when he did not work and marked them down on her window-sash. At the close of the year Van Aelst claimed her as his bride, assuming that he had fulfilled her condition; but she pointed to the record of his delinquencies, and he could but accept her crafty dismissal of his suit.
OSENGA, GIUSEPPINA. This artist resides in Parma, and has there exhibited landscapes that are praised for their color and for the manner in which they are painted, as well as for the attractive subjects she habitually chooses. “A View near Parma,” the “Faces of Montmorency,” and the “Bridge of Attaro” are three of her works which are especially admired.
OSTERTAG, BLANCHE. Member of Society of Western Artists; Arts Club, Chicago; Municipal Art League. Born in St. Louis. From 1892-1896 pupil of Laurens and Raphael Collin in Paris, where her works were hung on the line at the New Gallery, Champ de Mars.
A decorative artist who has executed mural decoration in a private house in Chicago, and has illustrated “Max Mueller’s Memories” and other publications. For use in schools she made a color print, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence before the Army.”
Her calendars and posters are in demand by collectors at home and in foreign countries. Miss Ostertag has designed elaborate chimney pieces to be executed in mosaic and glass. Her droll conceits in “Mary and Her Lamb,” the “Ten Little Injuns,” and other juvenile tales were complimented by Boutet de Monvel, who was so much interested in her work that he gave her valuable criticism and advice without solicitation.
O’TAMA-CHIOVARA. Gold medal at an exhibition of laces in Rome and prizes at all the exhibitions held in Palermo by the Art Club. Born in Tokio, where she came to the notice of Vicenzo Ragusa, a Sicilian sculptor in the employ of the Japanese Government at Tokio. He taught her design, color, and modelling, and finally induced her to go with his sister to Palermo. Here her merit was soon recognized in a varied collection of water-colors representing flowers and fruits, which were reproduced with surpassing truth. When the School of Applied Art was instituted at Palermo in 1887, she was put in charge of the drawing, water-color, and modelling in the Women’s Section.
She knows the flowers of various countries–those of Japan and Sicily wonderfully well, and her fancy is inexhaustible; her exquisite embroideries reflect this quality. She has many private pupils, and is as much beloved for her character as she is admired for her talents. When she renounced Buddhism for Christianity, the Princess of Scalca was her godmother.
PACZKA-WAGNER, CORNELIA. Honorable mention, Berlin, 1890. Born in Goettingen, 1864. She has been, in the main, her own instructor, living for some years in Rome for the purpose of study. In 1895 she settled in Berlin, where she has made a specialty of women’s and children’s portraits in olgraphy (?) and lithography. Beautiful drawings by her were exhibited at the International Water-Color Exhibition in Dresden, 1892.
An interesting account of a visit to the studio of the Hungarian painter Paczka and his German wife tells of a strong series of paintings in progress there, under the general title, “A Woman’s Soul.” In freedom and boldness of conception they were said to remind one of Klinger, but in warmth and depth of feeling to surpass him. Frau Paczka had just finished a very large picture, representing the first couple after the expulsion from Paradise. The scene is on the waste, stony slope of a mountain; the sun shines with full force in the background, while upon the unshadowed rocks of the foreground are the prostrate Adam and his wife–more accusing than complaining.
In 1899 Frau Paczka exhibited in Berlin, “Vanitas,” which excels in richness of fancy and boldness of representation, while wanting somewhat in detail; the ensemble presents a remarkably fine, symbolic composition, which sets forth in rich color the dance of mankind before the golden calf, and the bitter disillusions in the struggle for fame, wealth, and happiness.
PARLAGHY, VILMA, OR THE PRINCESS LWOFF. Great gold medal from the
Emperor of Austria, 1890; great gold medal, 1894; small gold medal at Berlin, 1890, adjudged to her portrait of Windhorst. Born at Hadju-Dorogh in 1863, and studied in Budapest, Munich, Venice, Florence, and Turin. Her portraits having found great favor at the Court of Berlin, she removed her studio from Munich to that capital.
One of her instructors was Lenbach, and she is said by some critics to have appropriated his peculiarities as a colorist and his shortcomings in drawing, without attaining his geniality and power of divination. In 1891 her portrait of Count von Moltke, begun shortly before his death and finished afterward, was sent to the International Exposition at Berlin, but was rejected. The Emperor, however, bought it for his private collection, and at his request it was given a place of honor at the Exposition, the incident causing much comment. She exhibited a portrait of the Emperor William at Berlin in 1893, which Rosenberg called careless in drawing and modelling and inconceivable in its unrefreshing, dirty-gray color.
In January, 1895, she gave an exhibition of one hundred and four of her works, mostly portraits, including those of the Emperor, Caprivi, von Moltke, and Kossuth, which had previously been exhibited in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. The proceeds of this exhibition went to the building fund of the Emperor William Memorial Church.
Of a portrait exhibited in 1896, at Munich, a critic said that while it was not wholly bad, it was no better than what hundreds of others could do as well, and hundreds of others could do much better.
PASCH, ULRICKE FRIEDERIKA. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Sweden. Born in Stockholm. 1735-1796. A portrait of Gustavus-Adolphus II. by this artist is in the Castle at Stockholm. She was a sister of Lorenz Pasch.
PASCOLI, LUIGIA. This Venetian painter has exhibited in various Italian cities since 1870, when she sent a “Magdalen” to Parma. “First Love” appeared at Naples in 1877, and “The Maskers”–pastel–at Venice in 1881. A “Girl with a Cat,” a “Roman Girl,” and a “Seller of Eggs”–the latter in Venetian costume–are works of true value. Her copies of Titian’s “St. Mark” and of Gian Bellini’s “Supper at Emmaus” have attracted attention and are much esteemed.
PASSE, MAGDALENA VAN DE. Born at Utrecht about 1600; she died at the age of forty. This engraver was a daughter of Crispus van de Passe, the elder. She practised her art in Germany, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands, and was important as an artist. Her engraving was exceedingly careful and skilful. Among her plates are “Three Sibyls,” 1617; an “Annunciation,” “Cephalus and Procris,” “Latona,” and landscapes after the works of Bril, Savery, Willars, etc.
PATTISON, HELEN SEARLE. Born in Burlington, Vermont. Daughter of Henry Searle, a talented architect who moved to Rochester, New York, where his daughter spent much of her girlhood. She held the position of art teacher in a school in Batavia, New York, while still a girl herself.
About 1860 she became the pupil of Herr Johan Wilhelm Preyer, the well-known painter of still-life, fruit, and flowers. Preyer was a dwarf and an excellent man, but as a rule took no pupils. He was much interested in Miss Searle, and made an exception in her case. She soon acquired the technique of her master and painted much as he did, but with less minute detail, finer color, and far more sentiment.
[Illustration: FLOWERS
HELEN SEARLE PATTISON]
In 1876 Miss Searle married the artist, James William Pattison, now on the staff of the Art Institute, Chicago. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Pattison resided at Ecouen, near Paris. Returning to America in 1882, they spent some time in Chicago and New York City, removing to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1884. Here Mr. Pattison was at the head of the School of Fine Arts.
Mrs. Pattison lived but a few months in Jacksonville, dying in November, 1884.
Mrs. Pattison’s artistic reputation was well established and her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon and in all the German cities of importance. They were frequently seen in England and at the National Academy of Design in New York. Her subjects were still-life, fruit, and flowers, and her works are widely distributed.
PAZZI, CATERINA DE, whose conventual name was Maria Maddalena. Was born in Florence in 1566. It would be interesting to know the relation that this gentle lady bore to those Pazzi who had earned a fame so unlike hers fourscore years before she saw the light.
Caterina de Pazzi, when a mere girl, entered a convent which stood on the site of the church known by her name in the Via Pinti. The cell of Santa Maddalena–now a chapel–may still be visited. She was canonized by Pope Alexander VIII. in 1670, sixty-two years after her death.
The Florentines have many lovely legends associated with her memory. One of these relates that she painted pictures of sacred subjects when asleep. Be this as it may, we know that her pictures were esteemed in the days when the best artists lived and worked beside her. Examples of her art may still be seen in churches in Rome and Parma, as well as in the church of her native city which bears her name.
PEALE, ANNA C. Made her mark as a miniature painter and for some years was the only professional woman artist in Philadelphia. Her portrait of General Jackson made in 1819 was well considered. She also made portraits of President Monroe, Henry Clay, R. M. Johnson, John Randolph of Roanoke, and other prominent men. Miss Peale married in 1829 the Rev. William Staughton, a Baptist clergyman, the president of the theological college at Georgetown, Kentucky. He lived but three months after their marriage, and she returned to Philadelphia and again pursued her artistic labors. She married a second husband, General William Duncan, and from this time gave up professional painting.
PEALE, SARA M. 1860-1885. Daughter of James Peale, under whose teaching she made her first studies. She was also a pupil of her uncle, the founder of Peale’s Museum, Philadelphia. Miss Peale painted portraits and spent some years in Baltimore and Washington. Among her portraits are those of Lafayette, Thomas Benton, Henry A. Wise, Caleb Cushing, and other distinguished men. From 1847 she resided in St. Louis thirty years and then went to Philadelphia. Her later works were still-life subjects, especially fruits.
PELICHY, GEERTRUIDA. Honorary member of the Academy of Vienna. Born in Utrecht, 1744; died in Bruegge, 1825. Pupil of P. de Cock and Suvee. In 1753, she went to Bruegge with her father, and later to Paris and Vienna. She painted portraits of the Emperor Joseph II. and Maria Theresa, some good landscapes, and animal studies. Two of her pictures are in the Museum at Bruegge.
PELLEGRINO, ITALA. Born at Milan, 1865. Pupil of Battaglia. Her pictures are of genre and marine subjects. At the great exhibition at Turin, 1884, she exhibited a marine view which was bought by Prince Amadeo. Another marine view exhibited at Milan was acquired by the Societa Promotrice. In 1888 she sent to the exhibition at Naples, where she resides, a view of Portici, which was added to the Royal Gallery. The excellence of her work is in the strength and certainty of touch and the sincerity and originality of composition. She has painted a “Marine View of Naples,” “In the Gulf,” “Fair Weather,” and “Evening at Sea”; also a genre picture, “Frusta la,” which was sold while in an exhibition in Rome.
PENICKE, CLARA. Born at Berlin in 1818, where she died in 1899. She studied first with Remy and later with Carl Begas and Edward Magnus. Her work was largely confined to portrait and historical painting. In the Gallery at Schwerin is her “Elector Frederick of Saxony Refusing to Accept the Interim.” Another good example of her historical work is the “Reconciliation of Charlemagne with Thassilo of Bavaria.” A well-known and strongly modelled portrait of Minister Von Stoach and several Luther portraits, “Luther’s Family Devotion” and “Luther Finds the First Latin Bible,” show her facility in this branch of art. She also painted a “Christ on the Cross.”
PERELLI, LIDA. A landscape painter living in Milan, who has become well known by pictures that have been seen at the exhibitions in several Italian cities, especially through some Roman studies that appeared at Florence and Turin in 1884. “A View of Lecco, Lake Como,” “Casolare,” and “A Lombard Plain” are among her best works.
PERMAN, LOUISE E. Born at Birkenshaw, Renfrewshire. Studied in Glasgow. This artist paints roses, and roses only, in oils. In this art she has been very successful. She has exhibited at the Royal Academy and the New Gallery, London; at the Royal Scottish Academy, Glasgow; at art exhibits in Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Prague, Hanover, etc., and wherever her works have been seen they have been sold. In May, 1903, a collection of twenty-five rose pictures were exhibited by a prominent dealer, and but few were left in his hands.
A critic in the _Studio_ of April, 1903, writing of the exhibition at the Ladies’ Artists’ Club, Glasgow, says: “Miss Louise Perman’s rose pictures were as refined and charming as ever. This last-named lady certainly has a remarkable power of rendering the beauties of the queen of flowers, whether she chooses to paint the sumptuous yellow of the ‘Marechal Niel,’ the blush of the ‘Katherine Mermet,’ or the crimson glory of the ‘Queen of Autumn.’ She seems not only to give the richness of color and fulness of contour of the flowers, but to capture for the delight of the beholder the very spiritual essence of them.” To the London Academy, 1903, she sent a picture called “York and Lancaster.”
PERRIER, MARIE. Mention honorable at Salon des Artistes Francais, 1899; Prix Marie Bashkirtseff, 1899; honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1900; numerous medals from foreign and provincial exhibitions; medals in gold and silver at Rouen, Nimes, Rennes, etc.; bronze medals at Amiens and Angers. Member of the Societe des Artistes Francais; perpetual member of the Baron Taylor Association, section of the Arts of Painting, etc. Born at Paris. Pupil of Benjamin Constant, Jules Lefebvre, and J. P. Laurens.
Mlle. Perrier’s picture of “Jeanne d’Arc” is in a provincial museum; several pictures by her belonging to the city of Paris are scenes connected with the schools of the city–“Breakfast at the Communal School”; “After School at Montmartre” were at the Salon des Artistes Francais, 1903; others are “Manual Labor at the Maternal School,” “Flowers,” and “Recreation of the Children at the Maternal School.” Of the last Gabriel Moury says, “It is one of the really good pictures in the Salon.”
This artist decorated a villa near Nimes with four large panels representing the “Seasons,” twelve small panels, the “Hours,” and pictures of the labors of the fields, such as the gathering of grapes and picking of olives.
She has painted numerous portraits of children and a series of pictures illustrating the “Life of the Children of Paris.” They are “Children at School and after School,” “Children on the Promenade and Their Games,” and “Children at Home.”
PERRY, CLARA GREENLEAF. Member of the Copley Society. Born at Long Branch, New Jersey. Pupil of Boston Art Museum School, under Mr. Benson and Mr. Tarbell; in Paris pupil of M. Raphael Collin and Robert Henri.
Miss Perry has exhibited her portrait of Mrs. U. in the Salon of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and in Philadelphia. She paints landscapes and portraits.
PERRY, LILLA CABOT. Pupil in Boston of Dennis Bunker and Alfred Collins; in Paris of Alfred Stevens, Robert Fleury, Bouguereau, and Courtois; in Munich of Fritz von Uhde.
Mrs. Perry is essentially a portrait painter, but has painted landscapes, especially in Japan, where she spent some years. The scenery of Japan and its wonderfully beautiful Fuziyama would almost compel an artist to paint landscapes.
Mrs. Perry says that her pictures of French and Japanese types are, in fact, portraits as truly as are those she is asked to paint.
Her picture of a “Japanese Lacemaker” belongs to Mr. Quincy A. Shaw. It has been much admired in the exhibitions in which it has been seen.
In the Water-Color Exhibition of the Boston Art Club, 1903, Mrs. Perry’s portrait of Miss S. attracted much attention. The delicate flesh tones, the excellent modelling of the features, and what may be called the whole atmosphere of the picture combine in producing an effective and pleasing example of portraiture.
PERUGINI, CATERINA E. An Italian painter living in London, where she frequently exhibits her excellent pictures. Among them are “A Siesta,” “Dolce far Niente,” “Multiplication,” and portraits of Guy Cohn, son of Sir Guy Campbell, Bart., and of Peggy and Kitty Hammond, two charming children.
At the Academy, 1903, she exhibited “Faith” and “Silken Tresses.”
PERUGINI, MRS. KATE DICKENS. Younger daughter of Charles Dickens and wife of Charles Edward Perugini. This artist has exhibited at the Royal Academy and at other exhibitions since 1877. Her pictures are of genre subjects, such as the “Dolls’ Dressmaker,” “Little-Red-Cap,” “Old Curiosity Shop,” etc. At the Academy, 1903, she exhibited “Some Spring Flowers.”
[_No reply to circular_.]
PETERS, ANNA. Medals at Vienna, 1873; London, 1874; Munich, 1876; Amsterdam and Antwerp, 1877. Born at Mannheim, 1843. Pupil of her father, Pieter Francis Peters, in Stuttgart. Miss Peters travelled over Europe and was commissioned to decorate apartments in the royal castles at Stuttgart and Friedrichshafen.
Her picture of “Roses and Grapes” is in the National Gallery, London; and one of “Autumn Flowers” in the Museum at Stuttgart.
PILLINI, MARGHERITA. An Italian painter living in Paris. Her most successful exhibitions have been those at Rome, in 1883, when her “Silk-cocoon Carder of Quimper” and “Charity” appeared; and at Turin, in 1884, when “The Three Ages,” “The Poor Blind Man,” and a portrait of the Prince of Naples were shown, all exquisite in sentiment and excellent in execution. The “Silk-cocoon Carder of Quimper” has been thus noticed by De Rengis: “If I am not mistaken, Signora Margherita Pillini has also taken this road, full of modernity, but not free from great danger. Her ‘Silk-cocoon Carder’ is touched with great disdain for every suggestion of the old school. Rare worth–if worth it is–that a young woman should be carried by natural inclination into such care for detail.”
PINTO-SEZZI, IDA. Silver medal at the Beatrice Exposition, Florence, 1890. Since 1882 pictures by this artist have been seen in various Italian exhibitions. In the Beatrice of that year she exhibited “Cocciara,” and in 1887 “A Friar Cook.” Her “Fortune-Teller” attracted general attention at Venice in 1887.
This artist has also given some time to the decoration of terra-cotta in oil colors. An amphora decorated with landscape and figures was exhibited at the Promotrice in Florence in 1889 (?) and much admired.
POETTING, COUNTESS ADRIENNE. Born in Chrudim, Bohemia, 1856. The effect of her thorough training under Blass, Straschiripka, and Frittjof Smith is seen in her portraits of the Deputy-Burgomaster Franz Khume, which is in the Rathhaus, Vienna, as well as in those of the Princess Freda von Oldenburg and the writer, Bertha von Suttner. Her excellence is also apparent in her genre subjects, “In the Land of Dreams” being an excellent example of these.
POPERT, CHARLOTTE. Silver medal at the Beatrice, Florence, 1890. Born in Hamburg, 1848. Pupil in Weimar of the elder Preller and Carl Gherts; of P. Joris in Rome, and Bonnat in Paris. After extensive travels in the Orient, England, the Netherlands, and Spain, she established herself in Rome and painted chiefly in water-colors. Her “Praying Women of Bethlehem” is an excellent example of her art.
In 1883 she exhibited at Rome, “In the Temple at Bethlehem”; at Turin in 1884, “In the Seventeenth Century” and “The Nun”; at Venice in 1887, an exquisite portrait in water-colors.
POPPE-LUeDERITZ, ELIZABETH. Honorable mention, Berlin, 1891. For the second time only the Senate of the Berlin Academy conferred this distinction upon a woman. The artist exhibited two portraits, “painted with Holbein-like delicacy and truthfulness”–if we may agree with the critics.
This artist was born in Berlin in 1858, and was a pupil of Gussow. Her best pictures are portraits, but her “Sappho” and “Euphrosine” are excellent works.
POPP, BABETTE. Born in Regensburg, 1800; died about 1840. Made her studies in Munich. In the Cathedral of Regensburg is her “Adoration of the Kings.”
POWELL, CAROLINE A. Bronze medal at Chicago, 1893; silver medal at Buffalo, 1901. Member of the Society of American Wood-Engravers and of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. Born in Dublin, Ireland. Pupil of W. J. Linton and Timothy Cole.
[Illustration: Doge’s Palace, Venice
ST. CHRISTOPHER
ENGRAVED BY CAROLINE A. POWELL]
Miss Powell was an illustrator of the _Century Magazine_ from 1880 to 1895. The engraving after “The Resurrection” by John La Farge, in the Church of St. Thomas, New York, is the work of this artist. She also illustrated “Engravings on Wood,” by William M. Laffan, in which book her work is commended.
Miss Powell is now employed by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and writes me: “So far as I know, I am, at present, the only woman in America engaged in the practise of engraving as a fine art.”
PRESTEL, MARIA CATHARINA; FAMILY NAME HOLL. Born in Nuremburg,
1747. Her husband, Johan Prestel, was her teacher, and she was of great assistance in the work which he produced at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in 1783. In 1786, however, she separated from him and went to London, where she devoted herself to aquatints. She executed more than seventy plates, some of them of great size.
PRESTEL, URSULA MAGDALENA. Born in Nuremburg. 1777-1845. Daughter of the preceding artist. She worked in Frankfort and London, travelled in France and Switzerland, and died in Brussels. Her moonlight scenes, some of her portraits, and her picture of the “Falls of the Rhine near Laufen,” are admirable.
PREUSCHEN, HERMINE VON SCHMIDT; married name, Telman. Born at
Darmstadt, 1857. Pupil of Ferdinand Keller in Karlsruhe. Travelled in Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark. She remained some time in Munich, Berlin, and Rome, establishing her studio in these cities and painting a variety of subjects. Her flower pictures are her best works. Her “Mors Imperator” created a sensation by reason of its striking qualities rather than by intrinsic artistic merit. In the gallery at Metz is her picture of “Irene von Spilimberg on the Funeral Gondola.”
In 1883 she exhibited in Rome, “Answered,” a study of thistles; “In Autumn,” a variety of fruits; and “Questions,” a charming study of carnations. At Berlin, in 1890, “Meadow Saffron and Cineraria” was praised for its glowing color and artistic arrangement. A Viennese critic, the same year, lamented that an artist of so much talent should paint lifeless objects only. In Berlin, in 1894, she held an exhibition, in which her landscapes and flower pieces were better than her still-life pictures. Frau Preuschen is also a musician and poet.
The painting of flower pieces is a delightful art for man or woman, but so many such pictures which are by amateurs are seen in exhibitions–too good to be refused but not of a satisfactory quality–that one can scarcely sympathize with the critic who would have Mme. Preuschen paint other subjects than these charming blossoms, so exquisite in form and color, into which she paints so much delightful sentiment.
PUEHN, SOPHIE. Born at Nuremberg, 1864. This artist studied in Paris and Munich and resides in the latter city. At the International Exhibition, Vienna, 1894, her portrait of a “Lady Drinking Tea” was praised by the critics without exception, and, in fact, her portraits are always well considered. That she is also skilful in etching was shown in her “Forsaken,” exhibited in 1896.
PUTNAM, SARAH GOOLD. Member of the Copley Society. Born in Boston. Pupil in Boston and New York of J. B. Johnston, F. Duveneck, Abbott Thayer, and William Chase; in Scheveningen, of Bart. J. Blommers; and in Munich, of Wilhelm Duerr.
Miss Putnam’s portrait of Hon. John Lowell is in the District Court Room in Post-Office Building, Boston; that of William G. Russell, in the Law Library in the Court House, Pemberton Square, same city; that of General Charles G. Loring, for many years Director of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, belongs to his family; among her other portraits are those of Dr. Henry P. Bowditch, Francis Boott, George Partridge Bradford, Edward Silsbee, Mrs. Asa Gray, and Lorin Deland. In addition to the above she has painted more than one hundred portraits of men, women, and children, which belong to the families of the subjects.
PUYROCHE, MME. ELISE. Born in Dresden, 1828. Resided in Lyons, France, where she was a pupil of the fine colorist, Simon St. Jean. Mme. Puyroche excelled her master in the arrangement of flowers in her pictures and in the correctness of her drawing, while she acquired his harmonious color. Her picture called the “Tom Wreath,” painted in 1850, is in the Dresden Gallery.
QUESTIER, CATHERINE. Born in Amsterdam. In 1655 she published two comedies which were illustrated by engravings of her own design and execution. She achieved a good reputation for painting, copper engraving, and modelling in wax, as well as for her writings.
RAAB, DORIS. Third-class medal, Nuremberg; also second-class medal, 1892. Born in Nuremberg, 1851. Pupil of her father, Johann Leonhard Raab, in etching and engraving. She has engraved many works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Cuyp; among her plates after works of more recent artists are Piloty’s “Death Warrant of Mary Stuart,” Lindenschmidt’s “In Thought,” and Laufberger’s “Hunting Fanfare.” This artist resides in Munich.
RADOVSKA, BARONESS ANNETTA, of Milan. Her interesting genre pictures are seen in most of the Italian exhibitions. “Old Wine, Young Wife,” was at Milan, 1881; in same city, 1883, “An Aggression,” “The Visit,” “The Betrothed.” She also sent to Rome, in 1883, two pictures, one of which, “The Harem,” was especially noteworthy. In 1884, at Turin, she exhibited “Tea” and the “Four Ages”; these, were excellent in tone and technique and attractive in subject. At Milan, 1886, her “Will He Arrive?” was heartily commended in the art journals.
RAE, HENRIETTA. See Normand, Mrs. Ernest
RAGUSA, ELEANORA. See O’Tama.
RAPIN, AIMEE. At the Swiss National Exposition, 1896, a large picture of a “Genevese Watchmaker” by this artist was purchased; By the Government and is in the Museum at Neuchatel. In 1903 the city of Geneva commissioned her to paint a portrait of Philippe Plantamour, which is in the Museum Mon-Repos, at Geneva. Member of the Societe des Beaux-Arts of Lausanne, Societe des Femmes peintres et sculpteurs de la Suisse romande, Societe de l’exposition permanente des Beaux-Arts, Geneva. Born at Payerne, Canton de Vaud. Studied at Geneva under M. Hebert and Barthelmy Menn, in painting; Hugues Bovy, modelling.
[Illustration: In the Museum at Neuchatel
GENEVESE WATCHMAKER
AIMEE RAPIN]
Mlle. Rapin writes me: “I am, above all, a portrait painter, and my portraits are in private hands.” She names among others of her sitters, Ernest Naville, the philosopher; Raoul Pictet, chemist; Jules Salmson, sculptor, etc. She mentions that she painted a portrait of the present Princess of Wales at the time of her marriage, but as it was painted from photographs the artist has no opinion about its truth to life. Mlle. Rapin has executed many portraits of men, women, and children in Paris, London, and Germany, as well as in Switzerland. She refers me to the following account of herself and her art. In the _Studio_ of April, 1903, R. M. writes: “The subject of these notes is a striking example of the compensations of Nature for her apparent cruelty; also of what the genuine artist is capable of achieving notwithstanding the most singular disadvantages. Some years ago in the little town of Payerne, Canton Vaud, a child was born without arms. One day the mother, while standing near a rose-bush with her infant in her arms, was astonished to observe one of its tiny toes clasp the stem of the rose. Little did she guess at the time that these prehensile toes were destined one day to serve an artist, in the execution of her work, with the same marvellous facility as hands. As the child grew up the greatest care was bestowed upon her education. She early manifested unmistakable artistic promise, and at the age of sixteen was sent to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Geneva…. For reasons already mentioned Mlle. Rapin holds a unique position amongst that valiant and distinguished group of Swiss lady artists to whose work we hope to have the opportunity of referring…. She is a fine example of that singleness of devotion which characterizes the born artist. Her art is the all-absorbing interest of her life. It is not without its limitations, but within these limitations the artist has known how to be true to herself. Drawing her inspiration direct from nature, she has held on her independent way, steadily faithful to the gift she possesses of evoking a character in a portrait or of making us feel how the common task, when representative of genuine human effort and touched with the poetry of national tradition, of religion, and of nature, becomes a subject of noble artistic treatment. She has kept unimpaired that _merveilleux frisson de sensibilite_ which is one of the most precious gifts of the artistic temperament, and which is quick to respond to the ideal in the real. There are some artists who, though possessed of extraordinary mastery over the materials of their art, bring to their work a spirit which beggars and belittles both art and life; there are others who seem to work with an ever-present sense of the noble purpose of their vocation and the pathos and dignity of existence. Mlle. Rapin belongs to the second category. Her ‘L’Horloger’ is an example of this. A Genevese watchmaker is bending to his work at a bench covered with tools. Through the window of the workshop one perceives in the blue distance