Mont Saleve, and nearer the time-honored towers of the Cathedral of St. Pierre. Here is a composition dealing with simple life–a composition which, from the point of execution, color, and harmony of purpose, leaves little or nothing to be desired. But this is not all. It is, so to speak, an artistic _resume_ of the life and history of the old city, and that strongly portrayed national type gathers dignity from his alliance with the generations who helped to make one of the main interests of the city, and from his relationship to that eventful past suggested by the Cathedral and the Mountain.
“Mlle. Rapin is unmistakably one of the best Swiss portraitists, working for the most part in pastels, her medium by predilection; she has at the same time modelled portraits in bas-relief. We are not only impressed by the intensely living quality of her work as a portraitist, but by the extraordinary power with which she has seized and expressed the individual character and history of each of her subjects.”
Mlle. Rapin has exhibited her works with success in Paris, Munich, and Berlin. The few specimens of her bas-reliefs which I have seen prove that did she prefer the art of sculpture before that of painting, she would be as successful with her modelling tools as she has been with her brush.
RAPPARD, CLARA VON. Second-class medal, London. Born at Wabern, near Berne, 1857. After studying with Skutelzky and Dreber, she worked under Gussow in Berlin. She spent some time in travel, especially in Germany and Italy, and then, choosing Interlaken as her home, turned her attention to the illustration of books, as well as to portrait and genre painting. In the Museum at Freiburg is her “Point-lace-maker.” A series of sixteen “Phantasies” by this artist has been published in Munich.
RATH, HENRIETTE. Honorary member of the Societe des Arts, 1801. Born in 1772, she died in 1856 at Genf, where, with her sister, she founded the Musee Rath. She studied under Isabey, and was well and favorably known as a portrait and enamel painter.
REAM, VINNIE. See Hoxie.
REDMOND, FRIEDA VOELTER. Medal at the Columbian Exhibition, Chicago. Member of the Woman’s Art Club. Born in Thun, Switzerland. Studies made in Switzerland and in Paris. A painter of flowers and still-life.
“Mrs. Redmond is a Swiss woman, now residing in New York. She has exhibited her works in the Paris Salon, in the National Academy of Design, at the Society of American Artists’ exhibitions, etc., and was awarded a medal at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Her work is not only skilful and accurate in description and characterization; it is done with breadth and freedom, and given a quality of fine decorative distinction. Her subjects are roses, cyclamen, chrysanthemums, nasturtiums, double larkspurs, cinneraria, etc., and she makes each panel a distinct study in design, with a background and accessories of appropriate character. For example, the three or four large panels of roses painted at Mentone have a glimpse of the Mediterranean for background, and a suggestion of trellis-work for the support of the vine or bush; and in another rose panel we have a tipped-over Gibraltar basket with its luscious contents strewed about in artful confusion. The double larkspurs make very charming panels for decorative purposes. They are painted with delightful fulness of color and engaging looseness and crispness of touch.”–_Boston Transcript_.
REGIS, EMMA. This Roman painter has given special attention to figures, and has executed a number of portraits, one of the best of which is that of the Marchioness Durazzo Pallavicini. She has exhibited some delightful work at Turin and at Rome, such as “The Lute-Player,” “All is not Gold that Glitters,” “Humanity,” and “In illo Tempore?”
[_No reply to circular_.]
REINHARDT, SOPHIE. Born at Kirchberg, 1775; died at Karlsruhe, 1843. Pupil of Becker. She travelled in Austro-Hungary and Italy. In the Kunsthalle at Karlsruhe is her picture of “St. Elizabeth and the Child John.” Among her best works are “The Death of St. Catherine of Alexandria,” “The Death of Tasso,” and twelve illustrations for a volume of Hebel’s poems.
REMY, MARIE. Born in Berlin, 1829. Daughter of Professor August Remy of the Berlin Academy. Pupil of her father, Hermine Stilke, and Theude Groenland. She travelled extensively in several European countries, making special studies in flowers and still-life, from which many of her water-colors were painted; twenty of these are in the Berlin National Gallery.
REUTER, ELIZABETH. Born in Lubeck, 1853. Pupil of Zimmermann in Munich, A. Schliecker in Hamburg, and of H. Eschke in Berlin. She also went to Duesseldorf to work in the Gallery there. Later she travelled in Scandinavia. Her best pictures are landscapes. Among them is a charming series of six water-colors of views in the park of Friedrichsruhe.
REVEST, CORNELIA LOUISA. Second-class medals in 1819 and 1831 in Paris. Born in Amsterdam, 1795; died in Paris, 1856. Pupil of Serangely and Vafflard in Paris. In 1814 she painted a “Magdalen at the Feet of Christ” for a church in Marseilles. She also painted many good portraits and a picture called “The Young Mother Playing the Mandolin.”
RICHARD, MME. HORTENSE. Honorable mention, Exposition of 1889; third-class medal, 1892; silver medals at Antwerp and Barcelona, and gold medal in London. Born at Paris, 1860. Pupil of James Bertrand, Jules Lefebvre, and Bouguereau. Has exhibited regularly since 1875. Her picture of “Cinderella” is in the Museum of Poitiers; “At Church in Poitou” is in the Luxembourg. She has painted many portraits.
RICHARDS, ANNA MARY. Norman Dodge prize, National Academy, New York, 1890. Member of the ’91 Art Club, London. Born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1870. Pupil of Dennis Bunker in Boston, H. Siddons Mowbray and La Farge in New York, Benjamin Constant and J. P. Laurens in Paris, and always of her father, W. T. Richards.
Miss Richards’ work is varied. She is fond of color when suited to her subject; she also works much in black and white. When representing nature she is straightforward in her rendering of its aspects and moods, but she also loves the “symbolic expression of emotion” and the so-called “allegorical subjects.” The artist writes: “I simply work in the way that at the moment it seems to me fitting to work to express the thing I have in mind. Where the object of the picture is one sort of quality, I use the method that seems to me to emphasize that quality.”
When but fourteen years old this artist exhibited at the National Academy, New York, a picture of waves, “The Wild Horses of the Sea,” which was immediately sold and a duplicate ordered. In England Miss Richards has exhibited at the Academy, and her pictures have been selected for exhibitions in provincial galleries. Miss Richards is earnestly devoted to her art, and has in mind an end toward which she diligently strives–not to become a painter distinguished for clever mannerism, but “to attain a definite end; one which is difficult to reach and requires widely applied effort.”
Judging from what she has already done at her age, one may predict her success in her chosen method. In February, 1903, Miss Richards and her father exhibited their works in the Noe Galleries. I quote a few press opinions.
[Illustration: MAY DAY AT WHITELANDS COLLEGE, CHELSEA
ANNA M. RICHARDS]
“Miss Richards paints the sea well; she infuses interest into her figures; she has a love of allegory; her studies in Holland and Norway are interesting. Her ‘Whitby,’ lighted by sunset, with figures massed in the streets in dark relief against it, is beautiful. Her ‘Friends,’ showing two women watching the twilight fading from the summits of a mountain range, the cedared slopes and river valley below meantime gathering blueness and shadow, is of such strength and sweetness of fancy that it affects one like a strain of music.”
“Miss Richards becomes symbolic or realistic by turn. Some of her figures are creatures of the imagination, winged and iridescent, like the ‘Spirit of Hope.’ Again, she paints good, honest Dutchmen, loafing about the docks. Sometimes she has recourse to poetry and quotes Emerson for a title…. If technically she is not always convincing, it is apparent that the artist is doing some thinking for herself, and her endeavors are in good taste.”
Miss Richards has written “Letter and Spirit,” containing fifty-seven “Dramatic Sonnets of Inward Life.”
These she has illustrated by sixty full-page pictures. Of these drawings the eminent artist, G. F. Watts, says: “In imaginative comprehension they are more than illustrations; they are interpretations. I find in them an assemblage of great qualities–beauty of line, unity and abundance in composition, variety and appreciation of natural effects, with absence of manner; also unusual qualities in drawing, neither academical nor eccentric–all carried out with great purity and completeness.”
RICHARDS, SIGNORA EMMA GAGIOTTI. Rome.
[_No reply to circular_.]
RIES, THERESE FEODOROWNA. Bronze medal at Ekaterinburg; Karl Ludwig gold medal, Vienna; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900. Officer of the Academy. Born in Moscow. Pupil of the Moscow Academy and of Professor Hellmer, Vienna, women not being admitted to the Vienna Academy.
A critic in the _Studio_ of July, 1901, who signs his article A. S. L., writes as follows of this remarkable artist: “Not often does it fall to the lot of a young artist to please both critic and public at the same time, and, having gained their interest, to continue to fill their expectations. But it was so with Feodorowna Ries, a young Russian artist who some eight months ago had never even had a piece of clay in her hand, but who, by dint of ‘self,’ now stands amongst the foremost of her profession. It was chance that led Miss Ries to the brush, and another chance which led her to abandon the brush for the chisel. Five years ago she was awarded the Carl Ludwig gold medal for her ‘Lucifer,’ and at the last Paris Exhibition she gained the gold medal for her ‘Unbesiegbaren’ (The Unconquerable).
“Miss Ries was born and educated in Moscow, but Vienna is the city of her adoption. She first studied painting at the Moscow Academy, her work there showing great breadth of character and power of delineation. At the yearly Exhibition in Moscow, held some five months after she had entered as a student, she took the gold medal for her ‘Portrait of a Russian Peasant.’ She then abandoned painting for sculpture, and one month later gained the highest commendations for a bust of ‘Ariadne.’ She then began to study the plastic art from life. Dissatisfied with herself, although her ‘Somnambulist’ gained a prize, Miss Ries left Moscow for Paris, but on her way stayed in Vienna, studying under Professor Hellmer. One year later, at the Vienna Spring Exhibition, she exhibited her ‘Die Hexe.’ Here is no traditional witch, though the broomstick on which she will ride through the air is _en evidence_. She is a demoniac being, knowing her own power, and full of devilish instinct. The marble is full of life, and one seems to feel the warmth of her delicate, powerfully chiselled, though soft and pliable limbs.”
“‘Die Unbesiegbaren’ is a most powerful work, and stood out in the midst of the sculpture at Paris in 1900 with the prominence imparted by unusual power in the perception of the _whole_ of a subject and the skill to render the perception so that others realize its full meaning. There are four figures in this group–men drawing a heavy freight boat along the shore by means of a towline passed round their bodies, on which they throw their weight in such a way that their legs, pressed together, lose their outline–except in the case of the leader–and are as a mass of power. They also pull on the line with their hands. The leader bends over the rope until he looks down; the man behind him raises his head and looks up with an appealing expression; the two others behind are exerting all their force in pulling on the rope, but have twisted the upper part of the body in order to look behind and watch the progress of their great burden. There is not the least resemblance of one to the other, either in feature or expression, and to me it would seem that the woman who had conceived and executed this group might well be content to rest on her laurels.
“But an artistic creator who is really inspired with his art and not with himself is never satisfied; he presses on and on–sometimes after he has expressed the best of his talent. This is not yet reached, I believe, by Miss Ries, and we shall see still greater results of her inspiration.”
The Austrian Government commissioned this artist to execute the figure of a saint. One may well prophesy that there will be nothing conventional in this work. She has already produced a striking “Saint Barbara.” Her portrait busts include those of Professor Wegr, Professor Hellmer, Mark Twain, Countess Kinsky, Countess Palffs, Baron Berger, and many others.
RIJUTINE, ELISA. A bronze and a gold medal at the Beatrice Exposition, Florence, 1890. Born in Florence, where she resides and devotes herself to painting in imitation of old tapestries. An excellent example of her work is in water-colors and is called “The Gardener’s Children.” In 1888 and 1889 she exhibited “The Coronation of Esther” and a picture of “Oleanders.”
ROBERTS, ELIZABETH WENTWORTH.
[_No reply to circular_.]
ROBINSON, MRS. IMOGENE MORRELL. Medals at the Mechanics’ Fair,
Boston, and at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. Born in Attleborough, Massachusetts. Pupil of Camphausen in Duesseldorf, and of Couture in Paris, where she resided several years. Among her important works are “The First Battle between the Puritans and Indians” and “Washington and His Staff Welcoming a Provision Train,” both at Philadelphia. Mrs. Morrell continued to sign her pictures with her maiden name, Imogene Robinson.
A critic of the New York _Evening Post_ said of her pictures at Philadelphia: “In the painting of the horses Mrs. Morrell has shown great knowledge of their action, and their finish is superb. The work is painted with great strength throughout, and its solidity and forcible treatment will be admired by all who take an interest in Revolutionary history…. In the drawing of the figures of Standish and the chief at his side, and the dead and dying savages, there is a fine display of artistic power, and the grouping of the figures is masterly…. In color the works are exceedingly brilliant.”
ROBUSTI, MARIETTA. Born in Venice. 1560-1590. The parentage of this artist would seem to promise her talent and insure its culture. She was the daughter of Jacopo Robusti, better known as “Il Tintoretto,” who has been called “the thunder of art,” and who avowed his ambition to equal “the drawing of Michael Angelo and the coloring of Titian.”
The portrait of Marietta Robusti proves her to have been justly celebrated for her beauty. Her face is sweet and gentle in expression. She was sprightly in manner and full of enthusiasm for anything that interested and attracted her; she had a good talent for music and a charming voice in singing.
Her father’s fondness for her made him desire her constant companionship, and at times he permitted her to dress as a boy and share with him certain studies that she could only have made in this disguise. Tintoretto carefully cultivated the talents of his daughter, and some of the portraits she painted did her honor. That of Marco dei Vescovi first turned public attention to her artistic merits. The beard was especially praised and it was even said by good judges that she equalled her father. Indeed, her works were so enthusiastically esteemed by some critics that it is difficult to make a just estimate of her as an artist, but we are assured of her exquisite taste in the arrangement of her pictures and of the rare excellence of her coloring.
It soon became the fashion in the aristocratic circles of Venice to sit for portraits to this fascinating artist. Her likeness of Jacopo Strada, the antiquarian, was considered a worthy gift for the Emperor Maximilian, and a portrait of Marietta was hung in the chamber of his Majesty. Maximilian, Philip II. of Spain, and the Archduke Ferdinand, each in turn invited Marietta to be the painter of his Court.
Tintoretto could not be induced to be separated from his daughter, and the honors she received so alarmed him that he hastened to marry her to Mario Augusti, a wealthy German jeweller, upon the condition that she should remain at home.
But the Monarch who asks no consent and heeds no refusal claimed this daughter so beloved. She died at thirty, and it is recorded that both her father and her husband mourned for her so long as they lived. Marietta was buried in the Church of Santa Maria dell’ Orto, where, within sight of her tomb, are several of her father’s pictures.
Tintoretto painting his daughter’s portrait after her death has been the subject of pictures by artists of various countries, and has lost nothing of its poetic and pathetic interest in the three centuries and more that have elapsed since that day when the brave old artist painted the likeness of all that remained to him of his idolized child.
ROCCHI, LINDA. Born in Florence; she resides in Geneva. Two of her flower pieces, in water-color, were seen at the Fine Arts Exposition, Milan, 1881. In 1883, also in Milan, she exhibited “A Wedding Garland,” “Hawthorne,” etc. The constantly increasing brilliancy of her work was shown in three pictures, flowers in water-colors, seen at the Milan Exposition, 1886. To Vienna, 1887, she sent four pictures of wild flowers, which were much admired.
ROCCO, LILI ROSALIA. Honorable mention, a bronze medal, and four silver medals were accorded this artist at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, where she studied from 1880 to 1886, and was also a pupil of Solari. Born in Mazzara del Vallo, Sicily, 1863. In 1886 she exhibited, at Naples, “Cari Fiori!” at Palermo, “Flora”; and in Rome, “A Sicilian Contadina.” In 1888 her picture, “Spring,” was exhibited in London. Two of her works were in the Simonetti Exposition, 1889, one being a marine view from her birthplace. She has painted many portraits, both in oils and water-colors, and has been appointed a teacher in at least two Government schools in Naples.
RODIANA, ONORATA. Was a contemporary of the saintly Caterina de Vigri, but was of quite another order of women. She had one quality which, if not always attractive, at least commands attention. She was unique, since we know of no other woman who was at the same time a successful artist and a valiant soldier!
Born in Castelleone, near Cremona, early in the fifteenth century, she was known as a reputable artist while still young, and was commissioned to decorate the palace of the tyrant, Gabrino Fondolo, at Cremona. The girlish painter was beautiful in person, frank and engaging in manner, and most attractive to the gentlemen of the tyrant’s court.
One day when alone and absorbed in the execution of a wall-painting, a dissolute young noble addressed her with insulting freedom. She could not escape, and in the struggle which ensued she drew a dagger and stabbed her assailant to the heart.
Rushing from the palace, she disguised herself in male attire and fled to the mountains, where she joined a company of Condottieri. She soon became so good a soldier that she was made an officer of the band.
Fondolo raged as tyrants are wont to do, both on account of the murder and of the escape. He vowed the direst vengeance on Onorata if ever she were again in his power. Later, when his anger had cooled and he had no other artist at command who could worthily complete her decorations, he published her pardon and summoned her to return to his service.
Onorata completed her work, but her new vocation held her with a potent spell, and henceforth she led a divided life–never entirely relinquishing her brush, and remaining always a soldier.
When Castelleone was besieged by the Venetians, Onorata led her band thither and was victorious in the defence of her birthplace. She was fatally wounded in this action and died soon after, in the midst of the men and women whose homes she had saved. They loved her for her bravery and deeply mourned the sacrifice of her life.
Few stories from real life are so interesting and romantic as this, yet little notice has been taken of Onorata’s talent or of her prowess, while many less spirited and unusual lives have been commemorated in prose and poetry.
RODRIGUEZ DE TORO, LUISA. Honorable mention, Madrid, 1856, for a picture of “Queen Isabel the Catholic Reading with Dona Beatriz de Galindo”; honorable mention, 1860, for her “Boabdil Returning from Prison.”
Born in Madrid; a descendant of the Counts of Los Villares, and wife of the Count of Mirasol. Pupil of Carlos Ribera.
RONNER, MME. HENRIETTE. Medals and honorable mentions and elections to academies have been showered on Mme. Ronner all over Europe. The King of Belgium decorated her with the Cross of the Order of Leopold. Born in Amsterdam in 1821. The grandfather of this artist was Nicolas Frederick Knip, a flower painter; her father, Josephus Augustus Knip, a landscape painter, went blind, and after this misfortune was the teacher of his daughter; her aunt, for whom she was named, received medals in Paris and Amsterdam for her flower pictures. What could Henriette Knip do except paint pictures? Hers was a clear case of predestination!
At all events, almost from babyhood she occupied herself with her pencil, and when she was twelve years old her blind father began to teach her. Even at six years of age it was plainly seen that she would be a painter of animals. When sixteen she exhibited a “Cat in a Window,” and from that time was considered a reputable artist.
In 1850 she was married and settled in Brussels. From this time for fifteen years she painted dogs almost without exception. Her picture called “Friend of Man” was exhibited in 1850. It is her most famous work and represents an old sand-seller, whose dog, still harnessed to the little sand-wagon, is dying, while two other dogs are looking on with well-defined sympathy. It is a most pathetic scene, wonderfully rendered.
About 1870 she devoted herself to pictures of cats, in which specialty of art she has been most important. In 1876, however, she sent to the Philadelphia Exposition a picture of “Setter Dogs.” “A Cart Drawn by Dogs” is in the Museum at Hanover; “Dog and Pigeon,” in the Stettin Museum; “Coming from Market” is in a private collection in San Francisco.
Mme. Ronner has invented a method of posing cats that is ingenious and of great advantage. To the uninitiated it would seem that one could only take the portrait of a sleeping cat, so untiring are the little beasts in their gymnastic performances. But Mme. Ronner, having studied them with infinite patience, proceeded to arrange a glass box, in which, on a comfortable cushion, she persuades her cats to assume the positions she desires. This box is enclosed in a wire cage, and from the top of this she hangs some cat attraction, upon which the creature bounds and shows those wonderful antics that the artist has so marvellously reproduced in her painting. Mme. Ronner has two favorite models, “Jem” and “Monmouth.” The last name is classical, since the cat of Mother Michel has been made immortal.
Miss Winslow, in “Concerning Cats,” says that “Mme. Ronner excels all other cat painters, living or dead. She not only infuses a wonderful degree of life into her little figures, but reproduces the shades of expression, shifting and variable as the sands of the sea, as no other artist of the brush has done. Asleep or awake, her cats look to the” felinarian “like cats with whom he or she is familiar. Curiosity, drowsiness, indifference, alertness, love, hate, anxiety, temper, innocence, cunning, fear, confidence, mischief, earnestness, dignity, helplessness–they are all in Mme. Ronner’s cats’ faces, just as we see them in our own cats.”
It is but a short time ago that Mme. Ronner was still painting in Brussels, and had not only cats, but a splendid black dog and a cockatoo to bear her company, while her son is devoted to her. Her house is large and her grounds pleasant, and her fourscore years did not prevent her painting several hours a day, and, like some other ladies of whom we know, she was “eighty years young.”
The editor of the _Magazine of Art_, M. H. Spielman, in an article on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1903, writes: “What the dog is to Mr. Riviere, to Madame Ronner is the cat. With what unerring truth she records delightful kittenly nature, the feline nobility of haughty indifference to human approval or discontent, the subtlety of expression, and drawing of heads and bodies, the exact quality and tone of the fur, the expressive eloquence of the tail! With all her eighty years, Madame Ronner’s hand, vision, and sensibility have not diminished; only her sobriety of color seems to have increased.” Her pictures of this year were called “The Ladybird” and “Coaxing.” To the Exhibition of the Beaux-Arts in Brussels, 1903, Mme. Ronner sent pictures of cats, full of life and mischief.
ROOSENBOOM, MARGARITE VOGEL. Second-class medal, Munich, 1892. Born in 1843 and died in 1896, near The Hague. She spent a large part of her life near Utrecht, devoting herself mainly to the painting of flowers. One of her works is in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam, and another in the Museum at Breslau.
ROPE, ELLEN M. This English sculptor executed four large panels for the Women’s Building at the Chicago Exhibition. They represented Faith, Hope, Charity, and Heavenly Wisdom. They are now in the Ladies’ Dwelling, Cherries Street, London. A “Memorial” by her is in Salisbury Cathedral. Her reliefs of children are, however, her best works; that of a “Boy on a Dolphin” is most attractive. “Christ Blessing Little Children” is charmingly rendered.
At the Academy, 1903, she exhibited a panel for an organ chamber, in low relief.
ROSA, ANIELLA DI. 1613-1649. A pupil in Naples of Stanzioni, who, by reason of her violent death, has been called the Neapolitan Sirani. She acquired a good reputation as a historical painter and doubtless had unusual talent, but as she worked in conjunction with Stanzioni and with her husband, Agostino Beltrano, it is difficult to speak of works entirely her own.
Two pictures that were acknowledged to be hers represented the birth and death of the Virgin; these were praised and were at one time in a church in Naples, but in a recent search for them I was unable to satisfy myself that the pictures I saw were genuine.
Another pupil in the studio of Stanzioni was the Beltrano whom Aniella married. He painted in fresco, Aniella in oils, and they were frequently employed together. The fine picture of San Biagio, in the church of Santa Maria della Sanita, was one of their joint works.
Their early married life was very happy, but Aniella was beautiful and Beltrano grew jealous; it is said without cause, through the influence of a woman who loved him and hated Aniella; and in spite of the efforts she made to merit her husband’s confidence, his distrust of her increased. Her base rival, by her art and falsehood, finally succeeded in convincing Beltrano that Aniella was unworthy, and in his rage he fatally stabbed her, when, at thirty-six, she was in the prime of her beauty and talent. She survived long enough to convince her husband of her innocence and to pardon him for his crime, but he fled from Italy and lived the life of an outcast during ten years. He then returned to Naples, where after seven years, tormented by remorse, death came to his release.
Domenici generously praised the works of Aniella, and quoted her master, Stanzioni, as saying that she was the equal of the best painters of her time.
ROSALBA. See Carriera.
ROSSI, PROPERZIA DE. Born in Bologna. 1490-1530. This artist was the first woman to succeed as a sculptor whose works can still be seen. Pupil of Raimondi, she was more or less influenced by Tribolo. In the Church of San Petronio, in her native city, in the eleventh chapel, is a beautiful bas-relief of two angels, executed by Properzia. They are near Tribolo’s “Ascension.” A relief and a portrait bust in the same church are also ascribed to her.
Her first work in sculpture was a minute representation of the Crucifixion on a peach stone! The executioners, women, soldiers, and disciples were all represented in this infinitesimal space. She also inserted in a coat of arms a double-headed eagle in silver filigree; eleven peach stones on each side, one set representing eleven apostles with an article of the creed underneath, the other set eleven virgins with the name of a saint and her special attribute on each. Some of these intaglios are still in a private collection in Bologna.
At length Properzia saw the folly of thus belittling her talent, and when the facade of San Petronio was to be enriched with sculpture she asked for a share in the work and presented a bust she had made as a pledge of her ability; she was appointed to execute a portion of the decorations. She made a bas-relief, the subject being “Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife,” which Vasari called “a lovely picture, sculptured with womanly grace, and more than admirable.”
By this time the jealousy of other artists was aroused, and a story was diligently repeated to the effect that Properzia loved a young nobleman who did not care for her, and that the above work, so much admired, represented her own passion. Albertini and other artists waged an absolute crusade against her, and so influenced the superintendents of the church that Properzia was obliged to leave the work and her relief was never put in place. Through mortification and grief her health failed, and she died when but forty years old.
In spite of her persecution she was known in all Italy, not only for her sculpture, but for her copper-plate engraving and etching. When Pope Clement VII. went to Bologna for the coronation of Charles V. he asked for Properzia, only to hear that she had been buried that very week.
Her story has been told by Vasari and other writers. She was handsome, accomplished in music, distinguished for her knowledge of science, and withal a good and orderly housewife. “Well calculated to awaken the envy, not of women only, but also of men.” Canova ardently admired the work of Properzia that remained in his day, and esteemed her early death as one of the chief misfortunes to the advance of the fine arts in Italy.
ROTKY, BARONESS HANNA. Born at Czernowitz in 1857. She studied portrait painting under Blaas, Swerdts, and Trentino, and has worked principally in Vienna. Her portrait of Freiherr von Sterneck is in the Military Academy at Wiener-Neustadt.
RUDDER, MME. DE. This lady has made an art of her embroidery, and may be said to have revived this decorative specialty and to have equalled the ancient productions which are so beautiful and valuable. After her marriage to the well-known sculptor this gifted couple began their collaboration. M. P. Verneuil, in _Brush and Pencil_, November, 1903, writes: “The first result of this joint work was shown in 1894 at the Exposition Cercle pour l’Art, in the form of a panel, called ‘The Eagle and the Swan.’ It was exhibited afterward at the Secession in Vienna, where it was purchased by a well-known amateur and connoisseur. Other works were produced in succession, each more interesting than its predecessor. Not daunted by difficulties that would have discouraged the most ambitious and audacious craftswoman, Mme. de Rudder took for a subject ‘The Fates,’ to decorate a screen. Aside from the artistic interest attaching to this work, it is remarkable for another quality. The artist yielded to the instinctive liking that she had for useful art–she ornamented a useful article–and in mastering the technical difficulties of her work she created the new method called ‘re-embroidery.’ For the dresses of her ‘Fates’ ancient silks were utilized for a background. Some of the pieces had moth-holes, which necessitated the addition of ‘supplementary ornamental motives,’ ’embroidered on cloth to conceal the defects.’ The discovery of ‘re-embroidery’ was the result of this enforced expedient.
“This screen, finished in 1896, was exhibited at the Cercle Artistique, Brussels, where the mayor, M. Buls, saw it. Realizing the possibilities of the method and the skill of the artist, he gave an order to Mme. de Rudder to decorate the Marriage Hall of the Hotel de Ville. This order was delivered in 1896. During this period Mme. de Rudder worked feverishly. About the same time that the order for the Hotel de Ville was given, she received from M. Van Yssendyck, architect of the Hotel Provincial in Ghent, a commission to design and embroider six large allegorical panels. One of them represented ‘Wisdom’ in the habiliments of Minerva, modernized, holding an olive branch. The five others were ‘Justice,’ holding a thistle, symbolizing law; ‘Eloquence,’ crowned with roses and holding a lyre; ‘Strength,’ bending an oak branch; ‘Truth,’ crushing a serpent and bearing a mirror and some lilies; and ‘Prudence,’ with the horn of plenty and some holly. These six panels are remarkable for the beautiful decorative feeling that suffuses their composition. The tricks of workmanship are varied, and all combine to give a wonderful effect. Contrary to the form of presenting the ‘Fates,’ all the figures are draped.”
Her next important commission was for eight large panels, intended to decorate the Congo Free State department in the Brussels Exposition. These panels represent the “Triumph of Civilization over Barbarism,” and are now in the Museum at Tervueren. They are curious in their symbols of fetichism, and have an attraction that one can scarcely explain. The above are but a part of her important works, and naturally, when not absorbed by these, Mme. de Rudder executes some smaller pieces which are marvels of patience in their exquisite detail.
Perhaps her panels of the “Four Seasons” may be called her _chef-d’oeuvre_. The writer quoted above also says:
“To Mme. de Rudder must be given the credit for the interpretation of work demanding large and varied decorative effect, while in the creation of true artistic composition she easily stands at the head of the limited coterie of men and women who have mastered this delicate and difficult art. She is a leader in her peculiar craft.”
RUDE, MME. SOPHIE FREMIET. 1797-1867. Medal at Paris Salon, 1833. Born in Dijon. This artist painted historical and genre subjects as well as portraits. Her picture of the “Sleeping Virgin,” 1831, and that of the “Arrest of the Duchess of Burgundy in Bruges,” 1841, are in the Dijon Museum.
RUYSCH, RACHEL. The perfection of flower-painting is seen in the works of Rachel Ruysch. The daughter of a distinguished professor of anatomy, she was born at Amsterdam in 1664. She was for a time a pupil of William van Aelst, but soon studied from nature alone. Some art critics esteem her works superior to those of De Heem and Van Huysum. Let that be as it may, the pictures with which she was no doubt dissatisfied when they passed from her hand more than two centuries ago are greatly valued to-day and her genius is undisputed.
When thirty years old Rachel Ruysch married the portrait painter, Julian van Pool. She bore him ten children, but in the midst of all her cares she never laid her brush aside. Her reputation extended to every court of Europe. She received many honors, and was elected to the Academical Society at The Hague. She was received with distinguished courtesies on the two occasions when she visited Duesseldorf.
[Illustration: Alinari, Photo.
In the Pitti Gallery, Florence
FRUIT, FLOWERS, AND INSECTS
RACHEL RUYSCH]
The Elector John of Pfalz appointed her painter at his court, and beyond paying her generously for her pictures, bestowed valuable gifts on her. The Elector sent several of her works to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and to other distinguished rulers of that day.
The advance of years in no wise dulled her powers. Her pictures painted when eighty years old are as delicately finished as those of many years earlier. She died when eighty-six, “respected by the great, beloved even by her rivals, praised by all who knew her.”
The pictures by Rachel Ruysch are honorably placed in many public galleries; in those of Florence and Turin, as well as at Amsterdam, The Hague, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Munich, they are much valued. Although these pictures are characterized by extreme delicacy of touch, softness, and lightness, this artist knew how so to combine these qualities as to impart an effect of strength to her painting. Her rendering of separate flowers was exquisite, and her roses, either by themselves or combined with other flowers, are especially beautiful. She painted fruits in perfection, and the insects and butterflies which she sometimes added are admirably executed.
The chief criticism that can be made of her pictures is that she was less skilful in the grouping of her flowers than in their painting. Many of her works are in private galleries, especially in Holland. They are rarely sold; in London, about thirty years ago, a small “Bouquet of Flowers with Insects” was sold for more than two thousand dollars, and is now of double that value.
Her pictures have the same clearness and individuality that are seen in her portrait, in which she has short hair, a simple low-cut dress, with a necklace of beads about the throat.
SALLES, ADELHEID. Born in Dresden, 1825; died in Paris, 1890. Pupil of Bernhard and Jacquand, she established her studio in Paris. Many of her works are in museums: “Elijah in the Desert,” at Lyons; “The Legend of the Alyscamps,” at Nimes; “The Village Maiden,” at Grenoble; “Field Flowers,” at Havre, etc. She also painted portraits and historical subjects, among which are “Psyche in Olympus,” “The Daughters of Jerusalem in the Babylonian Captivity,” and the “Daughter of Jairus.”
She was a sister of E. Puyroche-Wagner.
SARTAIN, EMILY. Medal at Philadelphia Exhibition, 1876; Mary Smith prize at the Pennsylvania Academy for best painting by a woman, in 1881 and 1883. Born in Philadelphia, 1841. Miss Sartain has been the principal of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women since 1886.
She studied engraving under her father, John Sartain, and with Luminais in Paris. She engraved and etched book illustrations and numerous larger prints. She is also a painter of portraits and genre pictures, and has exhibited at the Salon des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Miss Sartain has been appointed as delegate from the United States to the International Congress on Instruction in Drawing to be held at Berne next August. Her appointment was recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, the United States Commissioner of Education, and Prof. J. H. Gore. Miss Sartain has also received letters from Switzerland from M. Leon Genoud, president of the Swiss Commission, begging her to accept the appointment.
SCHAEFER, MARIA. First-class medal, Bene-merenti, Roumania. Born in Dresden, 1854. Her first studies were made in Darmstadt under A. Noack; later she was a pupil of Budde and Bauer in Duesseldorf, and finally of Eisenmenger in Vienna. After travelling in Italy in 1879, she settled in Darmstadt. She made several beautiful copies of Holbein’s “Madonna,” one for the King of Roumania, and one as a gift from the city of Darmstadt to the Czarina Alexandra. Among her most excellent portraits are those of Friedrich von Schmidt and his son Henry. Several of her religious paintings ornament German churches: “St. Elizabeth” is at Biedenkopf, “Mary’s Departure from the Tomb of Christ” is at Nierstein, and “Christ with St. Louis and St. Elizabeth” and a Rosary picture are in the Catholic church at Darmstadt.
SCHEFFER, CAROLINE. The daughter of Ary Lamme and wife of J. B. Scheffer was an artist in the last decades of the eighteenth century, but the special interest connected with her is the fact that she was the mother of Ary and Henry Scheffer. From her artistic standpoint she had an appreciation of what was needed for the benefit of her sons. She took them to Paris to study, devoted herself entirely to their welfare, and died in Paris in 1839.
SCHLEH, ANNA. Born in Berlin, 1833. Her principal studies were made in her native city under Schrader, although she went to Rome in 1868, and finally took up her residence there. She had, previous to her work in Rome, painted “The Marys at the Grave.” Her later pictures include “The Citron-Vender” and a number of portraits for the Henkel family of Donnersmark.
SCHMITT-SCHENKH, MARIA. Born in Baden, 1837. She studied her art in Munich, Carlsruhe, and Italy. She established herself in Munich and painted pictures for churches, which are in Kirrlach, Mauer, Ziegelhausen, and other German towns. She also designed church windows, especially for the Liebfrauenkirche at Carlsruhe.
SCHUMANN, ANNA MARIA. Was called by the Dutch poets their Sappho and their Corneille. She was born in 1607, but as her family were Protestants and frequently changed their residence in order to avoid persecution, the place of her birth is unknown. When Anna Maria was eight years old, they went permanently to Utrecht.
This distinguished woman was one of the exceptions said to prove rules, for though a prodigy in childhood she did not become a commonplace or stupid woman. Learning was her passion and art her recreation. It is difficult to repeat what is recorded of her unusual attainments and not feel as if one were being misled by a Munchausen! But it would be ungracious to lessen a fame almost three centuries old.
We are told that Anna Maria could speak in Latin when seven years old, and translated from Seneca at ten. She acquired the Hebrew, Greek, Samaritan, Arabic, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Turkish, and Persian languages with such thoroughness that her admirers claim that she wrote and spoke them all. She also read with ease and spoke with finished elegance Italian, Spanish, English, and French, besides German and her native tongue.
Anna Maria Schurmann wrote verses in various languages, but the chief end which her exhaustive studies served was to aid her in theological research; in this she found her greatest satisfaction and deepest interest. She was respectfully consulted upon important questions by the scholars of different countries.
At the University of Utrecht an honorable place was reserved for her in the lecture-rooms, and she frequently took part in the learned discussions there. The professors of the University of Leyden paid her the compliment of erecting a tribune where she could hear all that passed in the lecture-room without being seen by the audience.
As an artist the Schurmann reached such excellence that the painter Honthorst valued a portrait by her at a thousand Dutch florins–about four hundred and thirty dollars–an enormous sum when we remember that the works of her contemporary, Albert Cuyp, were sold for thirty florins! and no higher price was paid for his works before the middle of the eighteenth century. A few years ago his picture, called “Morning Light,” was sold at a public sale in London for twenty-five thousand dollars. How astonishing that a celebrated artist like Honthorst, who painted in Utrecht when Cuyp painted in Dort, should have valued a portrait by Anna Maria Schurmann at the price of thirty-three works by Cuyp! Such facts as these suggest a question regarding the relative value of the works of more modern artists. Will the judgments of the present be thus reversed in the future?
This extraordinary woman filled the measure of possibilities by carving in wood and ivory, engraving on crystal and copper, and having a fine musical talent, playing on several instruments. When it is added that she was of a lovable nature and attractive in manner, one is not surprised that her contemporaries called her “the wonder of creation.”
Volsius was her friend and taught her Hebrew. She was intimately associated with such scholars as Salmatius and Heinsius, and was in correspondence with scholars, philosophers, and theologians regarding important questions of her time.
Anna Maria Schurmann was singularly free from egotism. She rarely consented to publish her writings, though often urged to do so. She avoided publicity and refused complimentary attentions which were urged upon her, conducting herself with a modesty as rare as her endowments.
In 1664, when travelling with her brother, she became acquainted with Labadie, the celebrated French enthusiast who preached new doctrines. He had many disciples called Labadists. He taught that God used deceit with man when He judged it well for man to be deceived; that contemplation led to perfection; that self-mortification, self-denial, and prayer were necessary to a godly life; and that the Holy Spirit constantly made new revelations to the human beings prepared to receive them.
Anna Maria Schurmann heard these doctrines when prostrated by a double sorrow, the deaths of her father and brother. She put aside all other interests and devoted herself to those of the Labadists. It is said that after the death of Labadie she gathered his disciples together and conducted them to Vivert, in Friesland. William Penn saw her there, and in his account of the meeting he tells how much he was impressed by her grave solemnity and vigorous intellect.
From this time she devoted her fortune to charity and died in poverty at the age of seventy-one. Besides her fame as an artist and a scholar, her name was renowned for purity of heart and fervent religious feeling. Her virtues were many and her few faults were such as could not belong to an ignoble nature.
SCUDDER, JANET. Medal at Columbian Exposition, 1893. Two of her medallion portraits are in the Luxembourg, Paris. Member of the National Sculpture Society, New York. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana. Pupil of Rebisso in Cincinnati, of Lorado Taft in Chicago, and of Frederic MacMonnies in Paris.
At the Chicago Exposition Miss Scudder exhibited two heroic-sized statues representing Illinois and Indiana. The portraits purchased by the French Government are of American women and are the first work of an American woman sculptor to be admitted to the Luxembourg. These medallions are in bas-relief in marble, framed in bronze. Casts from them have been made in gold and silver. The first is said to be the largest medallion ever made in gold; it is about four inches long.
[Illustration: A FROG FOUNTAIN
JANET SCUDDER]
To the Pan-American Exposition Miss Scudder contributed four boys standing on a snail, which made a part of the “Fountain of Abundance.” She has exhibited in New York and Philadelphia a fountain, representing a boy dancing hilariously and snapping his fingers at four huge frogs round his pedestal. The water spurts from the mouths of the frogs and covers the naked child.
Miss Scudder is commissioned to make a portrait statue of heroic size for the St. Louis Exposition. She will no doubt exhibit smaller works there. Portraits are her specialty, and in these she has made a success, as is proved by the appreciation of her work in Paris.
A memorial figure in marble is in Woodlawn Cemetery, also a cinerary urn in stone and bronze; a bronze memorial tablet is in Union College. Miss Scudder also made the seal for the Bar Association of New York.
SEARS, SARAH C. Medal at Chicago, 1893; William Evans prize, American Water-Color Society, New York; honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1900; bronze medal at Buffalo, 1901; silver medal at Charleston, South Carolina. Member of the New York Water-Color Club, Boston Art Students’ Association, National Arts Club, Boston Water-Color Club. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pupil of Ross Turner, Joseph de Camp, Edmund C. Tarbell, and George de Forest Brush. Mrs. Sears has also studied by herself with the criticism of masters.
She paints portraits, figures, and flowers, and is much interested in the applied arts. Of her exhibition at the Boston Art Club, 1903, a critic writes: “Nothing could be more brilliant in point of color than the group of seven water-color pictures of a sunny flower-garden by Mrs. Sears. In these works pure and limpid color has been pushed to its extreme capacity, under full daylight conditions, with a splendor of brightness which never crosses the line of crudity, but holds the same relative values as we see in nature, the utmost force of local color courageously set forth and contrasted without apparent artifice, blending into an harmonious unity of tone. Two of these pictures are especially fine, with their cool backgrounds of sombre pines to set off the magnificent masses of flowers in the foreground.”
At the exhibition of the Philadelphia Water-Color Club, 1903, the _Press_ said: “These brilliant and overpowering combinations of color carry to a limit not before reached the decorative possibilities of flowers.”
Mrs. Sears’ honors have been awarded to her portraits.
SEIDLER, CAROLINE LUISE. Born in Jena, 1786; died in Weimar, 1866. Her early studies were made in Gotha with Doell; in 1811 she went to Dresden, where she became a pupil of G. von Kuegelgen; in 1817 Langer received her into his Munich studio; and between 1818 and 1823 she was in Italy, making special studies of Vanucci and Raphael. In 1823 she was appointed instructor of the royal princesses at Weimar, and in 1824 inspector of the gallery there, and later became court painter. Among her works are a portrait of Goethe, a picture of “Ulysses and the Sirens,” and one of “Christ, the Compassionate,” which is in the church at Schestadt, Holstein.
SERRANO Y BARTOLOME, JOAQUINA. Born in Fermoselle. Pupil in Madrid of Juan Espalter, of the School of Arts and Crafts, and of the School of Painting. She sent four pictures to the Exposition of 1876 in Madrid: the portrait of a young woman, a still-life subject, a bunch of grapes, and a “Peasant Girl”–the last two are in the Museum of Murcia. In 1878 she sent “A Kitchen Maid on Saturday,” a study, a flower piece, and two still-life pictures; and in 1881 two portraits and some landscapes. Her portrait of the painter Fortuny, which belongs to the Society of Authors and Artists, gained her a membership in that Society. Two other excellent portraits are those of her teacher, Espalter, and General Trillo.
SEWELL, AMANDA BREWSTER. Bronze medal, Chicago, 1893; bronze medal, Buffalo, 1901; silver medal, Charleston; Clarke prize, Academy of Design, 1903. Member of the Woman’s Art Club and an associate of National Academy of Design. Born in Northern New York. Pupil at Cooper Union under Douglas Volk and R. Swain Gifford, and of Art Students’ League under William Chase and William Sartain; also of Julian’s Academy under Tony Robert Fleury and Bouguereau, and of Carolus Duran.
Mrs. Sewell’s “A Village Incident” is owned by the Philadelphia Social Art Club; “Where Roses Bloom” is in the Boston Art Club; portrait of Professor William R. Ware is in the Library of Columbia University. Her portrait of Amalia Kuessner will be exhibited and published.
Mrs. Sewell is the first woman to take the Clarke prize. She has been a careful student in the arrangement of portraits in order to make attractive pictures as well as satisfactory likenesses. Of the pictures she exhibited at the Academy of Design, winter of 1903, Charles H. Caffin writes:
“The portrait of Mrs. Charles S. Dodge, by Mrs. A. Brewster Sewell, is the finest example in the exhibition of pictorial treatment, the lady being wrapped in a brown velvet cloak with broad edges of brown fur, and seated before a background of dark foliage. It is a most distinguished canvas, though one may object to the too obvious affectation of the arrangement of the hands and of the gesture of the head–features which will jar upon many eyes and detract from the general handsomeness. The same lady sends a large classical subject, the ‘Sacred Hecatomb,’ to which the Clarke prize was awarded. It represents a forest scene lit by slanting sunlight, through which winds a string of bulls, the foremost accompanied by a band of youths and maidens with dance and song. The light effects are managed very skilfully and with convincing truth, and the figures are free and animated in movement, though the flesh tints are scarcely agreeable. It is a decorative composition that might be fitly placed in a large hall in some country house.”
SEYDELMANN, APOLLONIE. Member of the Dresden Academy. Born at Trieste about 1768; died in Dresden, 1840. Pupil of J. C. Seydelmann, whom she married. Later she went to Italy and there studied miniature painting under Madame Maron.
She is best known for her excellent copies of old pictures, and especially by her copy of the Sistine Madonna, from which Mueller’s engraving was made.
SHAW, ANNIE C. The first woman elected Academician in the Academy of Design, Chicago, 1876. Born at Troy, New York. Pupil of H. C. Ford. Landscape painter. Among her works are “On the Calumet,” “Willow Island,” “Keene Valley, New York,” “Returning from the Fair,” 1878, which was exhibited in Chicago, New York, and Boston. To the Centennial, Philadelphia, 1876, she sent her “Illinois Prairie.”
“Returning from the Fair” shows a group of Alderney cattle in a road curving through a forest. At the time of its exhibition an art critic wrote: “The eye of the spectator is struck with the rich mass of foliage, passing from the light green of the birches in the foreground, where the light breaks through, to the dark green of the dense forest, shading into the brownish tints of the early September-tinged leaves. Farther on, the eye is carried back through a beautiful vista formed by the road leading through the centre of the picture, giving a fine perspective and distance through a leafy archway of elms and other forest trees that gracefully mingle their branches overhead, through which one catches a glimpse of deep blue sky. As the eye follows this roadway to its distant part the sun lights up the sky, tingeing with a mellow light the group of small trees and willows, contrasting beautifully with the almost sombre tones of the dense forest in the middle distance.”
SHRIMPTON, ADA M. Has exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Water-Colors, British Artists, and principal provincial galleries in England and in Australia; also at the Paris Salon. Member of Society of Women Artists, London. Born in Old Alresford, Hampshire. Pupil of John Sparkes at South Kensington, and of Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant in Paris.
This artist has painted principally figure subjects, among which are “Cedric’s Daughter,” “Thoughts of Youth are Long Thoughts,” “Dream of the Past,” “Pippa Passes,” “Dorothy’s Bridesmaid’s Dress,” etc., etc. Recently she has devoted herself to portraits of ladies and children, in both oil and water-colors.
SIRANI, ELISABETTA. Has been praised as a woman and as an artist by Lanzi, Malvasia, Picinardi, and other writers until one must believe that in spite of the exaggeration of her personal qualities and her artistic genius, she was a singularly admirable woman and a gifted artist.
She was born in Bologna about 1640, and, like Artemisia Gentileschi, was the daughter of a painter of the school of Guido Reni, whose follower Elisabetta also became. From the study of her master she seems to have acquired the power to perceive and reproduce the greatest possible beauty with which her subjects could be invested.
She worked with such rapidity that she was accused of profiting by her father’s assistance, and in order to refute this accusation it was arranged that the Duchess of Brunswick, the Duchess of Mirandola, Duke Cosimo, and others should meet in her studio, on which occasion Elisabetta charmed and astonished her guests by the ease and perfection with which she sketched in and shaded drawings of the subjects which one person after another suggested to her.
Her large picture of the “Baptism of Christ” was completed when the artist was but twenty years old. Malvasia gives a list of one hundred and twenty pictures executed by Elisabetta, and yet she was but twenty-five when her mysterious death occurred.
In the Pinacoteca of Bologna is the “St. Anthony Adoring the Virgin and Infant Jesus,” by the Sirani, which is much admired; several other works of hers are in her native city. “The Death of Abel” is in the Gallery of Turin; the “Charity,” in the Sciarra Palace in Rome; “Cupids” and a picture of “Martha and Mary,” in the Vienna Gallery; an “Infant Jesus” and a picture called “A Subject after Guido” are in the Hermitage at Petersburg.
Her composition was graceful and refined, her drawing good, her color fresh and sweet, with a resemblance to Guido Reni in the half tones. She was especially happy in the heads of the Madonna and the Magdalene, imparting to them an expression of exalted tenderness.
Her paintings on copper and her etchings were most attractive; indeed, all her works revealed the innate grace and refinement of her nature.
Aside from her art the Sirani was a most interesting woman. She was very beautiful in person, and the sweetness of her temper made her a favorite with her friends, while her charming voice and fine musical talent added to her many attractions. Her admirers have also commended her taste in dress, which was very simple, and have even praised her moderation in eating! She was skilled in domestic matters and accustomed to rise at dawn to attend to her household affairs, not permitting her art to interfere with the more homely duties of her life. One writer says that “her devoted filial affection, her feminine grace, and the artless benignity of her manners rounded out a character regarded as an ideal of perfection by her friends.”
It may be that her tragic fate caused an exaggerated estimate to be made of her both as a woman and an artist. The actual cause of her death is unknown. There have been many theories concerning it. It was very generally believed that she was poisoned, although neither the reason for the crime nor the name of its perpetrator was known.
By some she was believed to have been sacrificed to the same professional jealousy that destroyed Domenichino; others accepted the theory that a princely lover who had made unworthy proposals to her, which she had scorned, had revenged himself by her murder. At length a servant, Lucia Tolomelli, who had been a long time in the Sirani family, was suspected of having poisoned her young mistress, was arrested, tried, and banished. But after a time the father of Elisabetta, finding no convincing reason to believe her guilty, obtained her pardon.
Whatever may have been the cause of the artist’s death, the effect upon her native city was overwhelming and the day of her burial was one of general mourning, the ceremony being attended with great pomp. She was buried beside Guido Reni, in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, in the magnificent Church of the Dominicans.
Poets and orators vied with each other in sounding her praises, and a book called “Il Penello Lagrimato,” published at Bologna soon after her death, is a collection of orations, sonnets, odes, epitaphs, and anagrams, in Latin and Italian, setting forth the love which her native city bore to this beautiful woman, and rehearsing again and again her charms and her virtues.
In the Ercolani Gallery there is a picture of Elisabetta painting a portrait of her father. It is said that she also painted a portrait of herself looking up with a spiritual expression, which is in a private collection and seen by few people.
SMITH, JESSIE WILLCOX. Mary Smith prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1903. Member of the Plastic Club and a fellow of the Academy, Philadelphia. Born in Philadelphia, where she was a pupil of the Academy; also studied under Thomas Eakins, Thomas P. Anschutz, and Howard Pyle.
Miss Smith is essentially an illustrator and her work is seen in all the leading American magazines. “The Child’s Calendar” is the work of this artist.
SONREL, MLLE. E. Honorable mention, Paris, 1893; third-class medal, 1895; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900. At the Salon des Artistes Francais, 1902, she exhibited “Sybille” and “Monica”; in 1903, “The Dance of Terpsichore” and “Princesse Lointaine.”
[_No reply to circular_.]
SPANO, MARIA. Silver medal, Naples, 1859, for a picture of a “Contadina of Sorrento.” Born in Naples, 1843. Pupil of her father, Raffaele Spano, under whose direction she made a thorough study of figure painting, the results of which are evident in her excellent portraits and historical subjects. She has also been greatly interested in landscape painting, in which she has been successful. “A Confidence” was bought by the Gallery at Capodimonte, and two of her pictures were acquired by the Provincial Council of Naples–a “Contadina,” life size, and a “Country Farmyard.” One of her best pictures is “Bice at the Castle of Rosate.”
SPILIMBERG, IRENE DI. Born in Udina, 1540. Her family was of German origin and exalted position. She was educated in Venice with great care and all the advantages that wealth could command. She was much in the society of learned men, which she preferred before that of the world of fashion.
Titian was her roaster in painting. Lanzi and Rudolfi praised her as an artist, and her fame now rests on the testimony of those who saw her works rather than on the pictures themselves, some of which are said to be in private collections in Italy. Titian painted her portrait as a tribute to her beauty; Tasso celebrated her intellectual charm in a sonnet, and yet she was but nineteen years old when she died.
Twenty years later a collection of orations and poems was published, all of which set forth her attractions and acquirements, and emphasized the sadness of her early death and the loss that the world had suffered thereby. When one remembers how soon after death those who have done a life work are forgotten, such a memorial to one so young is worthy of note.
SPURR, GERTRUDE E. Associate member of Royal Canadian Academy and member of the Ontario Society of Arts. Born in Scarborough, England. Pupil of the Lambeth Art School in drawing, of E. H. Holder in painting, in England; also of George B. Bridgman in New York. This artist usually paints small pictures of rural scenery in England and Wales–little stone cottages, bridges, river and mountain scenes. “Castle Rock, North Devon,” was exhibited at Buffalo, and is owned by Herbert Mason, Esq., of Toronto. “A Peep at Snowdon” and “Dutch Farm Door, Ontario,” are in Montreal collections. Her works have been exhibited in London at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Society of Lady Artists, and have been sold from these exhibitions.
I quote from the _Queen_, in reference to one of Miss Spurr’s London exhibitions: “We know of no more favorite sketching-ground in N. Wales for the artist than Bettws-y-coed. Every yard of that most picturesque district has been painted and sketched over and over again. The artist in this instance reproduces some of the very primitive cottages in which the natives of the principality sojourn. The play of light on the modest dwelling-places is an effective element in the cleverly rendered drawing now in the Society of Artists’ Exhibition. Miss Spurr, the daughter of a Scarboro lawyer, commenced her art studies with Mr. E. H. Holder, in the winter painting dead birds, fruit, and other natural objects, and in summer spending her time on the coast or in the woods or about Rievaulx Abbey. Any remaining time to be filled up was occupied by attending the Scarboro School of Art under the instruction of Mr. Strange. In a local sketching club Miss Spurr distinguished herself and gained several prizes, and she has at length taken up her abode in the metropolis, where she has attended the Lambeth Schools, studying diligently both from casts and life.”
STACEY, ANNA L. Honorable mention at Exhibition of Chicago Artists, 1900; Young Fortnightly Club prize, 1902; Martin B. Cahn prize, Exhibition at Art Institute, Chicago, 1902. Member of Chicago Society of Artists. Born in Glasgow, Missouri.
Pupil of Art Institute in Chicago. Paints portraits, figure subjects, and landscapes. The Cahn prize was awarded to the “Village at Twilight.” “Florence” is owned by the Klio Club; “Trophies of the Fields,” by the Union League Club, Chicago.
Recently Miss Stacey has painted a number of successful portraits.
STADING, EVELINA. Born in Stockholm. 1803-1829. She was a pupil of Fahlcrantz for a time in her native city, and then went to Dresden, where she made a thorough study and some excellent copies of the works of Ruisdael. In 1827 she went to Rome, making studies in Volzburg and the Tyrol _en route_. She painted views in Switzerland and Italy, and two of her landscapes are in the gallery in Christiania.
STANLEY, LADY DOROTHY. Member of the Ladies’ Athenaeum Club. Born in London. Pupil of Sir Edward Poynter–then Mr. Poynter–and of M. Legros, at Slade School, University College, London; also of Carolus Duran and Henner in Paris.
Lady Stanley has exhibited at the Royal Academy, the new Gallery, at the English provincial exhibitions, and at the Salon, Paris.
Her picture, “His First Offence,” is in the Tate National Gallery; “Leap Frog,” in the National Gallery of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Other pictures of hers are “A Water Nymph,” “The Bathers,” etc., which are in private galleries. “Leap Frog” was in the Academy exhibition, 1903.
STEBBINS, EMMA. 1815-1882. Born in New York. As an amateur artist Miss Stebbins made a mark by her work in black and white and her pictures in oils. After a time she decided to devote herself to sculpture. In Rome she studied this art and made her first success with a statuette of “Joseph.” This was followed by “Columbus” and “Satan Descending to tempt Mankind.” For Central Park, New York, she executed a large fountain, the subject being “The Angel of the Waters.”
STEPHENS, MRS. ALICE BARBER. Mary Smith prize, 1890. Pupil of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of the Julian Academy, Paris. An illustrator whose favorite subjects are those of every-day home life–the baby, the little child, the grandmother in cap and spectacles, etc.
[_No reply to circular_.]
STEVENS, EDITH BARRETTO. Two scholarships and a prize of one hundred dollars from the Art Students’ League, of which she is a member. Born in Houston, Virginia, in 1878. Studied at Art Students’ League and under Daniel C. French and George Gray Barnard.
Miss Stevens mentions as her principal works “A Candlestick Representing a Girl Asleep under a Poppy,” “Figure of Spring,” and the “Spirit of Flame.”
Miss Stevens is one of the women sculptors who have been selected to share in the decoration of the buildings for the St. Louis Exposition. She is to make two reclining figures on the pediment over the main entrance to the Liberal Arts Building. She has in her studio two reclining figures which will probably serve to fulfil this commission.
Miss Stevens is modest about her work and does not care to talk much about this important commission, even suggesting that her design may not be accepted; if she is successful it will certainly be an unusual honor for a woman at her age, whose artistic career covers less than five years.
STEVENS, MARY. Bronze medal at the Crystal Palace. Member of the Dudley Gallery, London. Born at Liverpool. Pupil of William Kerry and of her husband, Albert Stevens, in England, and of the Julian Academy, Paris.
Mrs. Stevens’ pictures were well considered when she exhibited a variety of subjects; of late, however, she has made a specialty of pictures of gardens, and has painted in many famous English and French gardens, among others, those of Holland House, Warwick Castle, and St. Anne’s, Dublin. In France, the gardens of the Duchesse de Dino and the Countess Foucher de Careil.
Mrs. Stevens–several of whose works are owned in America–has commissions to paint in some American gardens and intends to execute them in 1904.
STILLMAN, MARIE SPARTALI. Pupil of Ford Madox Brown. This artist first exhibited in public at the Dudley Gallery, London, in 1867, a picture called “Lady Pray’s Desire.” In 1870 she exhibited at the Royal Academy, “Saint Barbara” and “The Mystic Tryst.” In 1873 she exhibited “The Finding of Sir Lancelot Disguised as a Fool” and “Sir Tristram and La Belle Isolde,” both in water-colors. Of these, a writer in the _Art Journal_ said: “Mrs. Stillman has brought imagination to her work. These vistas of garden landscape are conceived in the true spirit of romantic luxuriance, when the beauty of each separate flower was a delight. The figures, too, have a grace that belongs properly to art, and which has been well fitted to pictorial expression. The least satisfactory part of these clever drawings is their color. There is an evident feeling of harmony, but the effect is confused and the prevailing tones are uncomfortably warm.”
W. M. Rossetti wrote: “Miss Spartali has a fine power of fusing the emotion of her subject into its color and of giving aspiration to both; beyond what is actually achieved one sees a reaching toward something ulterior. As one pauses before her work, a film in that or in the mind lifts or seems meant to lift, and a subtler essence from within the picture quickens the sense. In short, Miss Spartali, having a keen perception of the poetry which resides in beauty and in the means of art for embodying beauty, succeeds in infusing that perception into the spectator of her handiwork.”
[_No reply to circular_.]
STOCKS, MINNA. Born in Scheverin, 1846. Pupil of Schloepke in Scheverin, Stiffeck in Berlin, E. Bosch in Duesseldorf, and J. Bauck in Munich. Her “Lake of Scheverin” is in the Museum of her native city.
Her artistic reputation rests largely on her pictures of animals. She exhibits at the Expositions of the Society of Women Artists, Berlin, and among her pictures seen there is “A Journey through Africa,” which represents kittens playing with a map of that country. It was attractive and was praised for its artistic merit. In fact, her puppies and kittens are most excellent results–have been called masterpieces–of the most intimate and intelligent study of nature.
Among her works are “A Quartet of Cats,” “The Hostile Brothers,” and “The Outcast.”
STOKES, MARIANNA. Honorable mention at Paris Salon, 1884; gold medal in Munich, 1890; medal at Chicago in 1893. Member of the Society of Painters in Tempera. Born in Graz-Styria. Pupil of Professor W. von Lindenschmit in Munich, of M. Dagnan Bouveret and M. Courtois in Paris.
Her picture, “A Parting,” is in the Liverpool Gallery; “Childhood’s Wonder,” in the Nottingham Gallery; “Aucassin and Nicolette,” in the Pittsburg Gallery, etc.
Mrs. Stokes writes me that she has taken great interest in the revival of tempera painting in recent years. In reviewing the exhibition in the New Gallery, London, the _Spectator_ of May 2, 1903, speaks of the portraits by Mrs. Stokes as charming, and adds: “They are influenced by the primitive painters, but in the right way. That is, the painter has used a formal and unrealistic style, but without any sacrifice of artistic freedom.” Of a portrait of a child the same writer says: “It would be difficult to imagine a happier portrait of a little child,… and in it may be seen how the artist has used her freedom; for although she has preserved a primitive simplicity, the sky, sea, and windmill have modern qualities of atmosphere. The picture is very subtle in drawing and color, and the sympathy for child-life is perfect, seen as it is both in the hands and in the eyes.
“Another portrait by the same artist is hung on a marble pillar at the top of the stairs leading up to the balcony. The admirable qualities of decoration are well shown by the way it is hung…. Is a fine piece of strong and satisfactory color, but the decorative aspect in no way takes precedence of the portraiture. We think of the man first and the picture afterward.”
At the Academy, in 1903, Mrs. Stokes exhibited a portrait of J. Westlake, Esq., K.C.
STORER, MRS. MARIA LONGWORTH. Gold medal at Paris Exposition, 1900. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pupil of the Cincinnati Art School, which her father, Joseph Longworth, endowed with three hundred thousand dollars.
After working four years, making experiments in clay decoration at the Dallas White Ware Pottery, Mrs. Storer, “who had the enthusiasm of the artistic temperament coupled with fixity of purpose and financial resources,… had the courage to open a Pottery which she called Rookwood, the name of her father’s place on the hills beyond. This was in 1880.”
Nine years later this pottery had become self-supporting, and Mrs. Storer then dissolved her personal association with it, leaving it in charge of Mr. William Watts Taylor, who had collaborated with her during six years.
At the Paris Exposition Mrs. Storer exhibited about twenty pieces of pottery mounted in bronze–all her own work. It was an exquisite exhibition, and I was proud that it was the work of one of my countrywomen.
In 1897 Mr. Storer was appointed United States minister to Belgium, and Mrs. Storer took a Japanese artist, Asano, to Brussels, to instruct her in bronze work. Two years later Mr. Storer’s mission was changed to Spain, and there Mrs. Storer continued, under Asano’s guidance, her work in bronze, some of the results being seen in the mounting of her pottery.
At present Mr. Storer is our Ambassador to Austria, and Mrs. Storer writes me that she hopes to continue her work in bronze in Vienna.
In the summer of 1903 Mrs. Storer was in Colorado Springs, where she was much interested in the pottery made by Mr. Van Briggle. She became one of the directors of the Van Briggle Pottery Company, and encouraged the undertaking most heartily.
STUMM, MAUD. Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Pupil of Art Students’ League under Kenyon Cox and Siddons Mowbray, and of Oliver Merson in Paris, where her painting was also criticised and approved by Whistler. Her earliest work was flower painting, in which she gained an enviable reputation.
In Paris she began the study of figure painting, and her exhibition at the Salon was favorably received, the purity and brilliancy of her coloring being especially commended.
Several of Miss Stumm’s pictures are well known by reproductions. Among these is the “Mother and Child,” the original of which is owned by Mr. Patterson, of the Chicago _Tribune_. Her calendars, too, are artistic and popular; some of these have reached a sale of nearly half a million.
A series of studies of Sarah Bernhardt, in pastel, and a portrait of Julia Marlowe are among her works in this medium. Many of her figure subjects, such as “A Venetian Matron” and “A Violinist,” are portraits, not studies from professional models.
This artist has painted an unusual variety of subjects, but is ambitious in still another department of painting–decorative art–in which she believes she could succeed.
Her works are seen in the exhibitions of the Society of American Artists and of the American Water-Color Society.
SWOBODA, JOSEPHINE. Born in Vienna, 1861. Pupil of Laufberger and I. V. Berger. This portrait artist has been successful and numbers among her subjects the Princess Henry of Prussia, the late Queen of England, whose portrait she painted at Balmoral in 1893, the Minister Bauhaus, and several members of the royal house of Austria. The portrait of Queen Victoria was exhibited at the Water-Color Club, Vienna.
She also paints charming miniatures. Her pictures are in both oil and water-colors, and are praised by the critics of the exhibitions in which they are seen.
SWOPE, MRS. KATE. Honorable mention at National Academy of Design, 1888; honorable mention and gold medal, Southern Art League, 1895; highest award, Louisville Art League, 1897. Member of Louisville Art League. Born in Louisville, Kentucky. Pupil of Edgar Ward and M. Flagg in New York, and later of B. R. Fitz.
Mrs. Swope devotes herself almost entirely to sacred subjects. The pictures that have been awarded medals are Madonnas. She prefers to paint her pictures out of doors and in the sunlight, which results in her working in a high key and, as she writes, “in tender, opalescent color.”
One of her medal pictures is the “Head of a Madonna,” out of doors, in a hazy, blue shadow, against a background of grapevine foliage. The head is draped in white; the eyes are cast down upon the beholder. A sun spot kisses the white draperies on the shoulder. It is a young, girlish face, but the head is suggestive of great exaltation.
A second picture which received an award was a “Madonna and Child,” out of doors. The figure is half life size. Dressed in white, the Madonna is stretched at full length upon the grass. Raised on one arm, she gazes into the face of the infant Christ Child.
Mrs. Swope has had success in pastel, in which, not long since, she exhibited a “Mother and Child,” which was much admired. The mother–in an arbor–held the child up and reverently kissed the cheek. It was called “Love,” and was exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Mrs. Swope’s most ambitious work–five by three feet in size–represents an allegorical subject and is called “Revelation.”
SUES, MLLE. LEA. Three silver medals from the School of Arts, Geneva; diploma of honor at the National Swiss Exposition, 1896. Member of l’Athenee, Geneva. Born at Genoa and studied there under Professors Gillet, Poggy, and Castan.
This artist paints landscapes, Swiss subjects principally. Her pictures of Mont Blanc and Chamounix are popular and have been readily sold. They are in private collections in several countries, and when exhibited have been praised in German and French as well as in Swiss publications.
SYAMOUR, MME. MARGUERITE. Honorable mention, 1887; bronze medal at Exposition at Lyons. Born at Brery, 1861. Pupil of Mercie. Her principal works are a plaster statue, “New France,” 1886, in the Museum of Issoudun; a statue of Voltaire; a plaster statue, “Life”; a plaster group, the “Last Farewells”; a statue of “Diana,” in the Museum of Amiens; a great number of portrait busts, among them those of Jules Grevy, Flammarion, J. Claretie, etc.
At the Salon, Artistes Francais, 1902, this artist exhibited a “Portrait of M. G. L.,” and in 1904 “A Vision” and “La Dame aux Camelias.”
TAYLOR, ELIZABETH V. Sears prize, Boston Art Museum; bronze medal, Nashville Exposition, 1897. Member of the Copley Society, Boston. Pupil of E. C. Tarbell and Joseph de Camp in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This artist paints portraits in miniature and in life size. Her works are numerous and have been seen in many exhibitions.
THAULOW, MME. ALEXANDRA. Wife of the great Scandinavian painter. This lady is an artist in bookbinding and her work is much admired. A writer, H. F., says, in the _Studio_, December, 1903: “When the exhibition of bookbinding was held some time ago at the Musee Galliera, Madame Thaulow’s showcase attracted attention by its variety and its grace. The charm of these bindings lies in the fact that they have none of the massive heaviness of so many productions of this kind. One should be able to handle a book with ease, and not be forced to rest content with beholding it displaying its beauties behind glass or on the library shelf; and Madame Thaulow understood this perfectly when she executed the bindings now reproduced here. But these bindings are interesting not only from the standpoint of their utility and intelligent application; their ornamentation delights one by its graceful interpretation of Nature, rendered with a very special sense of decoration; moreover, the coloring of these mosaics of leather is restrained and fresh, and the hollyhocks and the hortensias, the bunches of mistletoe and the poppies, which form some of her favorite _motifs_, go to make up a delicious symphony.”
THEVENIN, MARIE ANNE ROSALIE. Medals at the Salons of 1849, 1859, 1861. Born at Lyons. Pupil of Leon Cogniet. Portrait and figure painter. Among her pictures the following are noticeable: “Flora McIvor and Rose Bradwardine,” 1848; “Portrait of Abbe Jacquet,” 1859; “Portrait of a Lady,” 1861.
THOMAS-SOYER, MME. MATHILDE. Honorable mention, 1880; third-class medal, 1881; bronze medal, Exposition, 1889. Born at Troyes, 1859. Pupil of Chapu and Cain. The principal works of this sculptor are: “A Russian Horse”; “Lost Dogs”; “Russian Greyhounds”; “Huntsmen and a Poacher,” in the Museum of Semur; “Combat of Dogs,” purchased by the Government; “Cow and Calf,” in the Museum of Nevers; “Stag and Bloodhound,” in the Museum of Troyes, etc.
At the Salon, Artistes Francais, 1902, Mme. Thomas-Soyer exhibited “An Irish Setter and a Laverock,” and in 1903 “Under the White Squall.”
THORNYCROFT, MARY. Born 1814; died 1895. Daughter of John Francis, the sculptor, whose pupil she was. This artist exhibited at the Royal Academy when very young. Her first important work was a life-size figure called “The Flower-Girl.” In 1840 she married Thomas Thornycroft, and went to Rome two years later, spending a year in study there. Queen Victoria, after her return, commissioned her to execute statues of the royal children as the Four Seasons. These were much admired when exhibited at the Academy. Later she made portrait statues and busts of many members of the royal family, which were also seen at the Academy Exhibition.
In his “Essays on Art,” Palgrave wrote: “Sculpture has at no time numbered many successful followers among women. We have, however, in Mrs. Thornycroft, one such artist who, by some recent advance and by the degrees of success which she has already reached, promises fairly for the art. Some of this lady’s busts have refinement and feeling.”
THURBER, CAROLINE NETTLETON. Born in Oberlin, Ohio. Pupil of Howard Helmick in Washington, and of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens in Paris.
In 1898 Mrs. Thurber took a studio in Paris, where her first work was the portrait of a young violinist, which was exhibited in the Salon of the following spring. This picture met with immediate favor with the public, the art critics, and the press. The Duchess of Sutherland, upon seeing it, sent for the artist and arranged for a portrait of her daughter, which was painted the following autumn while Mrs. Thurber was a guest at Dunrobin Castle. This portrait was subsequently exhibited in London and Liverpool.
Mrs. Thurber has painted portraits of many persons of distinction in Paris, among them one of Mlle. Ollivier, only daughter of Emile Ollivier, president of the Academie Francaise. Monsieur Ollivier, in a personal note to the artist, made the following comment upon the portrait of his daughter: “How much I thank you for the portrait of my daughter; it lives, so powerfully is it colored, and one is tempted to speak to it.” Mrs. Thurber is an exhibitor in the Salon, Royal Academy, and New Gallery, London, and other foreign exhibitions, as well as in those of this country.
She now has a studio in the family home at Bristol, Rhode Island, on Narragansett Bay, where she works during half the year. In winter she divides her time among the larger cities as her orders demand. While Mrs. Thurber’s name is well known through her special success in the portraiture of children, she has painted many prominent men and women in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and New England.
Among her later portraits are those of Mrs. James Sullivan, one of the lady commissioners of the St. Louis Exposition; Lieut.-Gen. Nelson A. Miles; Albert, son of Dr. Shaw, editor of the _Review of Reviews_; Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, former Dean of Oberlin College; Augustus S. Miller, mayor of Providence; Hon. L. F. C. Garvin, governor of Rhode Island; and Judge Austin Adams, late of the Supreme Court of Iowa.
THURWANGER, FELICITE CHASTANIER. This remarkable artist, not long since, when eighty-four years old, sent to the exhibition at Nice–which is, in a sense, a branch of the Paris Salon–three portraits which she had just finished. “They were hung in the place of honor and unanimously voted to belong to the first class.”
Mme. Thurwanger was the pupil of Delacroix during five years. The master unconsciously did his pupil an injury by saying to her father: “That daughter of yours is wonderfully gifted, and if she were a man I would make a great artist of her.” Hearing this, the young artist burst into tears, and her whole career was clouded by the thought that her sex prevented her being a really great artist, and induced in her an abnormal modesty. This occurred about forty-five years ago; since then we have signally changed all that!
Delacroix, who was an enthusiast in color, was the leader of one school of his time, and was opposed by Ingres, who was so wanting in this regard that he was accused of being color-blind.
Mme. Thurwanger had a curious experience with these artists. When but seventeen she was commissioned by the Government to copy a picture in the Louvre. One morning, when she was working in the Gallery, Ingres passed by and stopped to look at her picture. He examined it carefully, and with an expression of satisfaction said: “I am so very glad to see that you have the true idea of art! Remember always that there is no color in Nature; the outline is all; if the outline is good, no matter about the coloring, the picture will be good.”
This story would favor the color-blind theory, as Ingres apparently saw color neither in the original nor the copy.
An hour later Delacroix came to watch the work of his pupil, and after a few minutes exclaimed: “I am so happy, my dear girl, to see that you have the true and only spirit of art. Never forget that in Nature there is no line, no outline; everything is color!”
In 1852 Mme. Thurwanger was in Philadelphia and remained more than two years. She exhibited her pictures, which were favorably noticed by the Philadelphia _Enquirer_. In July of the above year her portraits were enthusiastically praised. “Not a lineament, not a feature, however trivial, escapes the all-searching eye of the artist, who has the happy faculty of causing the expression of the mind and soul to beam forth in the life-like and speaking face.”
In October, 1854, her picture of a “Madonna and Child” was thus noticed by the same paper: “For brilliancy, animation, maternal solicitude, form, grace, and feature, it would be difficult to imagine anything more impressive. It is in every sense a gem of the pictorial art, while the execution and finish are such as genius alone could inspire.”
TIRLINKS, LIEWENA. Born in Bruges, a daughter of Master Simon. This lady was not only esteemed as an artist in London, but she won the heart of an English nobleman, to whom she was given in marriage by Henry VIII. Her miniatures were much admired and greatly in fashion at the court. Some critics have thought the Tirlinks to be the same person with Liewena Bennings or Benic, whose story, as we know it, is much the same as the above.
TORMOCZY, BERTHA VON. Diploma of honor, Budapest and Agram. Born at Innspruck, 1846. Pupil of Hausch, Her, and Schindler. Among her pictures are “Girl in the Garden,” “Blossoming Meadows,” “Autumn Morning,” and a variety of landscapes.
TORO, PETRONELLA. A painter of miniatures on ivory which have attained distinction. Among those best known are the portraits of the Prince of Carignano, Duke Amadeo, and the Duchess d’Aosta with the sons of the Prince of Carignano. She has painted a young woman in an antique dress and another in a modern costume. Her works are distinguished by firmness of touch and great intelligence. She has executed some most attractive landscapes.
TREU, OR TREY, KATHARINA. Born at Bamberg. 1742-1811. A successful painter of flowers and still-life. Her talent was remarkable when but a child, and her father, who was her only master, began her lessons when she was ten years old. When still young she was appointed court painter at Mannheim, and in 1776 was made a professor in the Academy at Duesseldorf. Her pictures are in the Galleries of Bamberg and Carlsruhe, and in the Darmstadt and Stuttgart Museums.
URRUTIA DE URMENETA, ANA GERTRUDIS DE. Member of the Academy of Fine
Arts, Cadiz, 1846. Born in Cadiz. 1812-1850. She began the study of drawing with Javier, and after her marriage to Juan Jose de Urmeneta, professor of painting and sculpture and director of the Cadiz Academy, continued her work under his direction. A “St. Filomena” and “Resurrection of the Body,” exhibited in 1846, are among her best pictures. Her “St. Jeronimo” is in the new cathedral at Cadiz, and the Academy has shown respect to her memory by placing her portrait in the room in which its sessions are held.
VIANI, MARIA. Born at Bologna. 1670-1711. I find no reliable biographical account of this artist, whose name appears in the catalogue of the Dresden Gallery as the painter of the “Reclining Venus, lying on a blue cushion, with a Cupid at her side.”
VERELST, MARIAN. Born in 1680. This artist belonged in Antwerp and was of the celebrated artistic family of her name. She was a pupil of her father, Hermann, and her uncle, Simon Verelst. She became famous for the excellent likenesses she made and for the artistic qualities of her small portraits.
Like so many other artists, she was distinguished for accomplishments outside her art. She was a fine musician and a marvel in her aptitude in acquiring both ancient and modern languages. A very interesting anecdote is related of her, as follows: When in London, one evening at the theatre she sat near six German gentlemen, who expressed their admiration of her in the most flattering terms of their language, and at the same time observed her so closely as to be extremely rude. The artist, in their own tongue, remarked that such extravagant praise was the opposite of a compliment. One of them repeated his words in Latin, when she again replied in the same language. The strangers then asked her if she would give them her name. This she did and further told them that she lived with her uncle, Simon Verelst. In the end she painted the portrait of each of these men, and the story of their experience proved the reason for the acquaintance of the artist being sought by people of culture and position. Walpole speaks in praise of her portraits and also mentions her unusual attainments in languages.
VIGEE, MARIE LOUISE ELIZABETH. Member of the French Academy. Born in Paris in 1755. That happy writer and learned critic, M. Charles Blanc, begins his account of her thus: “All the fairies gathered about the cradle of Elizabeth Vigee, as for the birth of a little princess in the kingdom of art. One gave her beauty, another genius; the fairy Gracious offered her a pencil and a palette. The fairy of marriage, who had not been summoned, told her, it is true, that she should wed M. Le Brun, the expert in pictures–but for her consolation the fairy of travellers promised her that she should bear from court to court, from academy to academy, from Paris to Petersburg, and from Rome to London, her gayety, her talent, and her easel–before which all the sovereigns of Europe and all those whom genius had crowned should place themselves as subjects for her brush.”
[Illustration: A FRENCH PRINCE
MARIE VIGEE LE BRUN]
It is difficult to write of Madame Le Brun in outline because her life was so interesting in detail. Though she had many sorrows, there is a halo of romance and a brilliancy of atmosphere about her which marks her as a prominent woman of her day, and her autobiography is charming–it is so alive that one forgets that she is not present, telling her story!
The father of this gifted daughter was an artist of moderate ability and made portraits in pastel, which Elizabeth, in her “Souvenirs,” speaks of as good and thinks some of them worthy of comparison with those of the famous Latour. M. Vigee was an agreeable man with much vivacity of manner. His friends were numerous and he was able to present his daughter to people whose acquaintance was of value to her. She was but twelve years old at the time of his death, and he had already so encouraged her talents as to make her future comparatively easy for her.
Elizabeth passed five years of her childhood in a convent, where she constantly busied herself in sketching everything that she saw. She tells of her intense pleasure in the use of her pencil, and says that her passion for painting was innate and never grew less, but increased in charm as she grew older. She claimed that it was a source of perpetual youth, and that she owed to it her acquaintance and friendship with the most delightful men and women of Europe.
While still a young girl, Mlle. Vigee studied under Briard, Doyen, and Greuze, but Joseph Vernet advised her to study the works of Italian and Flemish masters, and, above all, to study Nature for herself–to follow no school or system. To this advice Mme. Le Brun attributed her success.
When sixteen years old she presented two portraits to the French Academy, and was thus early brought to public notice.
When twenty-one she married M. Le Brun, of whom she speaks discreetly in her story of her life, but it was well known that he was of dissipated habits and did not hesitate to spend all that his wife could earn. When she left France, thirteen years after her marriage, she had not so much as twenty francs, although she had earned a million!
She painted portraits of many eminent people, and was esteemed as a friend by men and women of culture and high position. The friendship between the artist and Marie Antoinette was a sincere and deep affection between two women, neither of whom remembered that one of them was a queen. It was a great advantage to the artist to be thus intimately associated with her sovereign lady. Even in the great state picture of the Queen surrounded by her children, at Versailles, one realizes the tenderness of the painter as she lovingly reproduced her friend.
Marie Antoinette desired that Mme. Le Brun should be elected to the Academy; Vernet approved it, and an unusual honor was shown her in being made an Academician before the completion of her reception picture. At that time it was a great advantage to be a member of the Academy, as no other artists were permitted to exhibit their works in the Salon of the Beaux-Arts.
Mme. Le Brun had one habit with which she allowed nothing to interfere, which was taking a rest after her work for the day was done. She called it her “calm,” and to it she attributed a large share of her power of endurance, although it lost her many pleasures. She could not go out to dinner or entertain at that hour. The evening was her only time for social pleasures. But when one reads her “Souvenirs,” and realizes how many notable people she met in her studio and in evening society, it scarcely seems necessary to regret that she could not dine out!
Mme. Le Brun was at one period thought to be very extravagant, and one of her entertainments caused endless comments. Her own account of it shows how greatly the cost was exaggerated. She writes that on one occasion she invited twelve or fifteen friends to listen to her brother’s reading during her “calm.” The poem read was the “Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grece,” in which a dinner was described, and even the receipts for making various sauces were given. The artist was seized with the idea of improvising a Greek supper.
She summoned her cook and instructed her in what had been read. Among her guests were several unusually pretty ladies, who attired themselves in Greek costumes as nearly as the time permitted. Mme. Le Brun retained the white blouse she wore at her work, adding a veil and a crown of flowers. Her studio was rich in antique objects, and a dealer whom she knew loaned her cups, vases, and lamps. All was arranged with the effect an artist knows how to produce.
As the guests arrived Mme. Le Brun added here and there an element of Grecian costume until their number was sufficient for an effective _tableau vivant_. Her daughter and a little friend were dressed as pages and bore antique vases. A canopy hung over the table, the guests were posed in picturesque attitudes, and those who arrived later were arrested at the door of the supper-room with surprise and delight.
It was as if they had been transported to another clime. A Greek song was chanted to the accompaniment of a lyre, and when the honey, grapes, and other dishes were served _a la Grecque_, the enchantment was complete. The poet recited odes from Anacreon and all passed off delightfully.
The fame of this novel supper was spread over Paris, and marvellous tales were told of its magnificence and its cost. Mme. Le Brun writes: “Some ladies asked me to repeat this pleasantry. I refused for various reasons, and several of them were disturbed by my refusal. Soon a report that the supper had cost me twenty thousand francs was spread abroad. The King spoke of it as a joke to the Marquis of Cubieres, who fortunately had been one of the guests and was able to convince His Majesty of the folly of such a story. Nevertheless, the modest sum of twenty thousand at Versailles became forty thousand at Rome; at Vienna the Baroness de Strogonoff told me that I had spent sixty thousand francs for my Greek supper; you know that at Petersburg the price at length was fixed at eighty thousand francs, and the truth is that it cost me about fifteen francs!”
Early in 1789, when the warnings of the horrors about to take place began to be heard, Mme. Le Brun went to Italy. In each city that she visited she was received with great kindness and many honors were shown her. In Florence she was invited to paint her own portrait, to be hung in that part of the Uffizi set apart for the portraits of famous painters. Later she sent the well-known portrait, near that of Angelica Kauffman. It is interesting to read Goethe’s comparison of the two portraits.
Speaking of Angelica’s first, he writes: “It has a truer tone in the coloring, the position is more pleasing, and the whole exhibits more correct taste and a higher spirit in art. But the work of Le Brun shows more careful execution, has more vigor in the drawing, and more delicate touches. It, has, moreover, a clear though somewhat exaggerated coloring. The Frenchwoman understands the art of adornment–the headdress, the hair, the folds of lace on the bosom, all are arranged with care and, as one might say, _con amore_. The piquant, handsome face, with its lively expression, its parted lips disclosing a row of pearly teeth, presents itself to the beholder’s gaze as if coquettishly challenging his admiration, while the hand holds the pencil as in the act of drawing.
“The picture of Angelica, with head gently inclined and a soft, intellectual melancholy pervading the countenance, evinces higher genius, even if, in point of artistic skill, the preference should be given to the other.”
Mme. Le Brun found Rome delightful and declared that if she could forget France she should be the happiest of women. She writes of her fellow artist: “I have been to see Angelica Kauffman, whom I greatly desired to know. I found her very interesting, apart from her fine talent, on account of her mind and her general culture…. She has talked much with me during the two evenings I have passed at her house. Her manner is gentle; she is prodigiously learned, but has no enthusiasm, which, considering my ignorance, has not electrified me…. I have seen several of her works; her sketches please me more than her pictures, because they are of a Titianesque color.”
Mme. Le Brun received more commissions for portraits than she could find time to paint in the three years she lived in Italy. She tells us: “Not only did I find great pleasure in painting surrounded by so many masterpieces, but it was also necessary for me to make another fortune. I had not a hundred francs of income. Happily I had only to choose among the grandest people the portraits which it pleased me to paint.” Her account of her experiences in Italy is very entertaining, but at last the restlessness of the exile overcame her and impelled her to seek other scenes. She went to Vienna and there remained three other years, making many friends and painting industriously until the spirit of unrest drove her to seek new diversions, and she went to Russia.
She was there received with great cordiality and remained six years–years crowded with kindness, labor, honor, attainment, joy, and sorrow. Her daughter was the one all-absorbing passion–at once the joy and the grief of her life. She was so charming and so gifted as to satisfy the critical requirements of her mother’s desires. In Petersburg, where the daughter was greatly admired and caressed, the artist found herself a thousand times more happy than she had ever been in her own triumphs.
Mme. Le Brun was so constantly occupied and the need of earning was so great with her, that she was forced to confide her daughter to the care of others when she made her debut in society. Thus it happened that the young girl met M. Nigris, whom she afterward married. Personally he was not agreeable to Mme. Le Brun and his position was not satisfactory to her. We can imagine her chagrin in accepting a son-in-law who even asked her for money with which to go to church on his wedding-day! The whole affair was most distasteful, and the marriage occurred at the time of the death of Mme. Le Brun’s mother. She speaks of it as a “time devoted to tears.”
Her health suffered so much from this sadness that she tried the benefit