THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
General Expansion and Extension of Art-culture.--More Scope given to
the Tendencies originated in preceding Age.--Reminiscences of past
Glories of Art active during the first half of the Century.--The
Flemish and Italian Schools in vogue.--Eclecticism.--Influences of
the French School mingled with those of the great Masters.--The
Rococo Style.--The Aggregate of Woman’s Labor greater than ever
before.--Not accompanied by greater Depth.--Less Individuality
discernible.--The greatest artistic Activity among Women in
Germany.--In France next.--In Italy next.--In other Countries
less.--Rapid Growth of Art in Berlin.--In Dresden.--Scholarship
and literary Position of Women during the first half of the
Century.--Poets and their Inspirations.--Princesses the Patrons
of Letters.--Nothing new or striking in Art.--A Revolution in
the latter half of the Century.--Instruction in Art a Branch of
Education.--Dilettanti of high Rank.--Female Pupils of Painters
of Note.--Mengs and Carstens.--Carstens the Founder of modern
German Art.--His Style not adapted to female Talent.--A lovely
Form standing between him and Mengs.--A female Stamp-cutter.--An
Artist in Wax-work.--In Stucco-work.--In cutting precious
Stones.--Barbara Preisler.--Other female Artists.--Fashionable Taste
in Painting.--Marianna Hayd.--Miniaturists.--Anna Maria Mengs.--Her
Works.--Miniature and Pastel-painting.--Flowers and Landscapes a
Passion.--Imitators of Rachel Ruysch and Madame Merian.--Celebrities
in Flower-painting.--Copper-engraving. Lady Artists of high
Rank.--Other Devotees to Art.
During the greater part of the eighteenth century we find rather a
general expansion and extension of taste and cultivation in the arts,
than a concentration of effort or a more rich and earnest development
of talent. The period gave more scope to the tendencies that had been
originated and determined in a preceding age. Connoisseurs fed upon
reminiscences of the past glories of art, and no new ideas were brought
to the world’s notice till the first half of the century had rolled
away.
The Flemish and Italian schools were in vogue, slightly modified,
but, on the whole, scarcely changed in any essential particular; or a
blending of diverse styles produced some artists who hardly deserve
notice for their individual merits. A spirit of eclecticism may,
indeed, be traced in the productions of the best masters of this time.
The sovereigns in the domain of art had then passed away, and with the
influence they still exercised was mingled that of the French school.
The brilliancy and glow of Titian and Paul Veronese, the deep poetic
feeling of Giorgione, the purity and tenderness of Raphael and Leonardo
da Vinci, the rugged grandeur of Michael Angelo, the soft, transparent
loveliness of Correggio, the bright beauty of Guido and Albano, and the
power and passion of the Caravaggio school, disputed the consideration
of amateurs with the light and lively style, the graceful mannerism of
a Watteau and a Bouché, and something of the reflective character of
the German Raphael Mengs, or that of Carstens and of Dietrich.
The finished and ornate manner of France especially became popular
over all the countries of Europe, exercising the same influence, in a
measure, upon art that it had upon literature. Hence originated the
style that has been aptly termed the Rococo--wanting in depth and
warmth, indeed, but having a certain completeness of technical detail
productive of happy effects.
The fresh life and earnest vigor that had marked the earlier schools
were paralyzed in this, and we do not wonder that a better condition
followed the reawakening of artistic feeling.
It is not to be denied that the aggregate amount of woman’s labor in
the domain of art was greater during the eighteenth century than in
any preceding one; indeed, the number of female artists far surpassed
the collected number of those known from earliest history. So vast an
increase was not according to the proportion of other vocations. It
is also true that, in their efforts, as in those of the men of this
period, the extension was not accompanied by greater depth, and less
individuality was discernible in the talent and skill which became more
generally diffused; hence the well-grounded complaint that the time was
deficient in great men. Nevertheless, the sum of ability and knowledge
had not diminished, though, in its manifold branchings and divisions,
such might appear to be the case.
We find, therefore, a certain uniformity and mediocrity among numerous
women artists of the eighteenth century, rather than eminent talent in
special instances. Yet this was not wholly wanting, while the standard
of excellence was elevated, and a more general spirit of emulation
prevailed.
Contrary to the experience of preceding ages, we discover the greatest
evidence of artistic activity among women in Germany; next to that,
in France; then in Italy. The Netherlands and England may be classed
together, while Spain and the Scandinavian countries are at the minimum
in this respect. These proportions are not owing to chance, but
correspond with the general development of art among the nations at
this time.
The aspect of female culture also corresponded with national
characteristics. The decorative was of rapid growth and early bloom in
Prussia; Berlin, hardly mentioned heretofore, became suddenly alive
with energetic talent superior to that which displayed itself in any
other German city. Art sprang into luxuriance, too, at the Electoral
court, and Dresden claimed no insignificant rank in the scale. France
meanwhile sustained her old renown; while Nuremberg and Munich should
not be slighted. But the Austrian and Rhine countries had less reason
to boast; and many cities of northern Germany were in like poverty of
women artists.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, the order of things
differed not essentially from the close of the seventeenth; in fact,
the same influences predominated, both in literature and art. The
Pegnitzschäfer and other poetical orders were still in existence; the
sacred poems composed by noble ladies had their imitations; female
authors wrote after the established fashion, while they entered on
a wider field, and partook of the new spirit breathed into German
poetry. Women then became not only creators in the realm of fancy and
imagination, but exercised a controlling influence, by their relations
of friendship and intimacy with distinguished literary characters. Meta
arose beside her Klopstock; Herder sought inspiration from his bride;
by Wieland stood Sophie Delaroche; Schiller was aided by Caroline
Wolzogen and Madame von Kalb; Goëthe by Madame von Stein. Princesses
and the noble ladies of the land gave their patronage and protection to
letters, and sought to gather round them the choice spirits of their
day. This, in the beginning of the century, did Sophie Charlotte, the
great Queen of Prussia; and Amalia von Weimar thus aided the richest
development of German mind.
Though nothing new or striking can be said to have been accomplished
in art by women during the first half of this century, the latter part
witnessed a revolution in which they greatly aided to spread and deepen
the growth of new ideas. It became necessary to the complete education
of ladies of the higher classes, that they should possess some
knowledge of art. Hagedorn mentions the fact that a teacher who could
give instruction in drawing and painting could much more readily obtain
a situation than one ignorant of those branches. Fashion and custom
enjoined not only a degree of knowledge, but also of skill, on those
who wished to be thought accomplished. There were many aristocratic
dilettanti, and a few royal ladies emulated the fame of the princely
dames of an older time in the pictorial crafts.
Among these may be mentioned, Anna Amalia, of Brunswick; the
Archduchesses Charlotte and Maria Anna, of Austria; Duchess Sophia,
of Coburg-Saalfeld; the Margravine of Baden-Durlach; the Princess
Victoria, of Anhalt-Bernburg, and Elizabeth Ernestine Antonia,
of Saxe-Meiningen; besides the excellent Elizabeth Christina, of
Brunswick, who sought to promote the restoration of art and the advance
of knowledge, for the love of Frederick, her royal husband, and who
will ever be honored as the ornament of a house that henceforward
showed itself ready to foster and appreciate the liberal arts.
We observe here, as before, that many painters of note had female
pupils or assistants, who endeavored to carry out the ideas they
originated. Dietrich, esteemed one of the best masters of the eclectic
school of the eighteenth century, had his enthusiasm shared by his
two sisters; Tischbein, who cultivated the French style, as Dietrich
did the Dutch, found appreciative companions and co-laborers in his
wife and daughter; and there were other women who strove to ennoble the
eclectic system by greater purity of tone and a more ardent study of
the antique. Oeser had several female pupils; and two sisters worked
in modest retirement beside the greatest artist of this style--Antoine
Raphael Mengs--having been taken through the same course of severe
study and exercise by their pedantic father.
Carstens obtained and brought to perfection what Mengs toiled to reach
and realize. The grand and comprehensive ideas of Winkelmann found in
him a harmonious development. Averse to the reflective, which formed
the chief characteristic of Mengs and Oeser, he was steeped in the
inspiration caught from the antique ideal, and, without becoming a
copyist of any style, was able to reproduce the seed from the fruitful
soil of his own endowments. He may be called the founder of modern
German art. His grand, bold, and ingenious style did not particularly
commend itself to female talent; we do not find, therefore, that he had
any disciples of the softer sex.
Between Carstens and Mengs, however, stands a lovely female form,
in age midway betwixt them, as in the peculiar bent of her genius;
less minute and reflective than Mengs, less grand and impressive than
Carstens. It is Angelica Kauffman, the gem of all the women artists of
this period; preserving the forms of the antique in her own delicate,
elegant, and charming style; wielding her power with such gracious
sweetness that all who behold are attracted to render the homage of
heartfelt admiration.
It was now that fresh vitality was infused into German art by a
contemplation of the antique, while the forms of humanity and nature
were observed with greater freedom. Chodowiecki pursued this system,
and was one of the most successful artists _de genre_; while his
daughter, his pupil, Mademoiselle Bohren, and Kobell’s scholar,
Crescentia Schott, were instrumental in preparing the way for the
advance of painting in the style lately introduced.
If we turn now from a general and hasty survey to the notice of
particular branches, it becomes a duty to record the names of some
women who practiced the most difficult and laborious of the plastic
arts. One of these was stamp-cutting. One who first evinced skill in
this kind of work was Rosa Elizabeth Schwindel of Leipzig, who plied
her art in Berlin at the commencement of the eighteenth century.
A beautiful medal of Queen Sophia Charlotte, executed by her, is
preserved. She was accomplished also in the cutting of gems and in
modeling in wax. In wax-work, Elizabeth Ross of Salzburg, Dorothea Menn
of Cologne, and Madame Weis, probably of Strasburg, were noted. As a
stone-cutter, Charlotte Rebecca Schild of Hanau worked in Paris. Rosina
Pflauder, in Salzburg, assisted her husband in stucco-work.
In the same kind of work, as well as in painting, Maria Juliana Wermuth
of Gotha displayed both industry and skill. In cutting precious stones
Susanna Maria Dorsch gained some celebrity. She was born at Nuremberg
in 1701, and married the painter Solomon Graf, taking the noted painter
and engraver, J. J. Preisler, for her second husband. The kind of work
in which she excelled had been practiced by her father and grandfather,
and her application was remarkable. A vast number of gems were cut by
her hand, and her industry was not without its reward in the gaining of
great reputation. Medals were stamped in honor of her.
Her daughters, Anna Felicitas and Maria Anna Preisler, employed
themselves in the same kind of work, without possessing, however, the
variety of talent or achieving the brilliant success of Barbara Julia,
the daughter of Johann Daniel Preisler of Nuremberg. She was skilled
in various branches of art; she could model in wax, and work in ivory
and alabaster, and added painting and copper-engraving to the list
of her accomplishments. She married a painter named Oeding, and died
in Brunswick before 1764. Several women, who were well known at the
time as modelers in wax, and who occupied themselves in engraving and
stone-cutting, might be named. Amid a number of names, necessarily
passed over, may be added those of the beautiful and variously-gifted
Mary Anna Treu of Bamberg, and her relative, Rosalie Treu, the wife of
the painter Dom, who afterward went to take the veil in a convent at
Mentz, giving up her resolution four days before the completion of her
novitiate, to return to the world and her native Bamberg.
Henriette Felicitas Tassaert, the daughter of the famous painter,
painted in pastel, and engraved in copper admirably. Mademoiselle
Nohren, a pupil of Chodowiecki in Berlin, became a member of the
academy.
It was natural that the greater number of artists of this period should
betake themselves to painting. We will glance first at some branches
of this, cultivated especially by women who did not achieve any thing
noteworthy in historical and genre painting. The fashionable taste of
the day ran much upon miniatures and pastel portraits, and many women
made themselves accomplished in this species of work, as well as in
enamel-painting, as far less study and application were required than
in the higher branches of the art.
Marianna Hayd, a somewhat celebrated miniature-painter, was born in
Dantzic in 1688. She pursued her profession in Berlin, and, after
her marriage in 1705 to the painter Werner, in Augsburg, her talents
procured for her the honor of a call to the electoral court of Saxony
in Dresden, where she received an appointment, and died in 1753.
Another fair artist in miniatures was Anna Rosina Liscewska, who also
worked in Berlin, where she was born in 1716. She achieved no mean
success, and in 1769 was admitted a member of the academy in Dresden.
The same city was adorned by the elegant labors of Anna Maria Mengs,
whom Dr. Guhl calls “the most gifted of the three sisters,” and who
is styled by Fiorillo “the daughter of the Raphael of his age.” She
received early instruction from her father; came to Dresden in 1751,
and devoted herself to painting--chiefly portraits. She made her first
journey to Rome in 1777, and there married a copper-engraver, Manuel
Salvador Carmona. She had many children, but continued to exercise
her art while taking care of them. She produced several pastel and
miniature paintings. Her chief works, done for the King of Spain and
the Infant Don Luis, are in Madrid, in the Academy of San Fernando, of
which she was chosen a member. She died in Madrid, 1793.
As miniature and pastel painting are peculiarly adapted to female
hands by the delicate and cleanly handling required, so flowers and
landscapes seem to present objects and scenes of beauty congenial to
the taste of the sex. It can not be wondered at, therefore, that these
branches found several cultivators. Flower and landscape painting
became a passion among the German women who could be classed as
amateurs or connoisseurs. Hagedorn mentions, in his work on painting,
as a distinguished patroness of these, a Countess von Oppendorf. With
her may be named the Countess von Truchsetz-Waldburg, the Princess
Anna Paar, and others of no special note. Maria Dorothea Dietrich,
the sister of the Dresden painter, and Crescentia Schott, already
mentioned, labored professionally in the art.
Many were the fair painters who imitated the famous Rachel Ruysch.
The representation of animals and objects in natural history became a
favorite style, and the celebrity of Madame Merian stirred up many of
her sex to emulate her success. The influence of example wrought as
powerfully here as in every other matter.
In the early part of this century lived at Lubeck Catharina Elizabeth
Heinecke, born in 1685, an enthusiastic patroness of flower-painting,
and the mother of “the famous Lubeck child.” We may mention also, amid
a cloud of artists to be passed unnoticed, a family at Nuremberg, named
Dietsch, that included three sisters of talent and accomplishment.
Catharina Treu, born at Bamberg in 1742, obtained celebrity in the same
line. She studied in Düsseldorf, attracted thither, doubtless, by the
works of Rachel Ruysch, and received the appointment of cabinet-painter
from Karl Theodore at Mannheim. Thence she returned to Düsseldorf to
take the place of professor in the academy of art in that place.
To the same period belongs Caroline Frederika Friedrich, the first
female pensionnaire who exercised her art as member of the academy in
Dresden. Gertrude Metz of Cologne was also a disciple of Rachel Ruysch
in Düsseldorf. Of a remaining host we name only the sisters Anna and
Elizabeth Fuessli (Fuseli), who painted in the style of their father,
and copied from nature the flowers and insects of Switzerland.
Copper-engraving was at this period practiced by a great number
of women, and patronized by many fair and princely dilettanti.
The Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, already named, possessed skill in
this branch. We may now leave all these, to look at the women who
distinguished themselves in the more commanding and elevated styles
of historical and genre painting. Here appears more evidence of
individuality in the treatment of particular subjects.
Place must be accorded first to ladies of the highest rank. Anna Amalia
of Brunswick was a noted painter. Maria Anna, Archduchess of Austria,
and daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, occupied her leisure hours
in genre-painting and etching, and by her skill obtained considerable
repute. Charlotte, Archduchess of Austria, was a member of the academy
at Vienna, and as Queen of the Two Sicilies received instruction in
Naples from Mura. The Duchess Sophia of Coburg-Saalfeld, besides her
paintings, left some proofs of her skill in engraving toward the close
of the century.
To these illustrious names may be added others who, like those royal
dames, devoted themselves to art, and gained high appreciation from
connoisseurs. Maria Elizabeth Wildorfer of Innspruck was busied in the
same profession a long time in Rome, where she painted portraits and
church pictures under the patronage of a cardinal. Maria Theresa Riedel
of Dresden, made pensionnaire of the academy there in 1764, occupied
herself in copying Dutch genre-paintings. Rosina, another sister of the
painter Dietrich, copied a number of old paintings. She married the
painter Boehme, and lived in Berlin till 1770.
Anna Dorothea, one of the sisters Liszeuska, born in 1722, was elected,
on account of her portraits and historical works, a member of the
Parisian Academy. She died in Berlin as Madame Therbusch, in 1782.
Jacoba Werbronk worked in the latter part of the century, and died in
1801 in the Cloister Iseghen. But none of the women artists of this
time can be compared in point of genius or celebrity to the one of
whom we are now to speak--one of the loveliest, most gifted, and most
estimable of all the women who have secured immortal fame by the labors
of the pencil.