[Illustration: Alinari, Photo.
In the Bologna Gallery
THE INFANT CHRIST
ELISABETTA SIRANI]
WOMEN
IN THE FINE ARTS
FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY B. C.
TO THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY A. D.
BY
CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT
1904
PREFATORY NOTE
As a means of collecting material for this book I have sent to many
artists in Great Britain and in various countries of Europe, as well as
in the United States, a circular, asking where their studies were made,
what honors they have received, the titles of their principal works, etc.
I take this opportunity to thank those who have cordially replied to my
questions, many of whom have given me fuller information than I should
have presumed to ask; thus assuring correctness in my statements, which
newspaper and magazine notices of artists and their works sometimes fail
to do.
I wish especially to acknowledge the courtesy of those who have given me
photographs of their pictures and sculpture, to be used as illustrations.
CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE INFANT CHRIST _Elisabetta Sirani_
In the Bologna Gallery. By permission of Fratelli Alinari.
A PORTRAIT _Elizabeth Gowdy Baker_
A PORTRAIT _Adelaide Cole Chase_
From a Copley print.
A CANADIAN INTERIOR _Emma Lampert Cooper_
ANGIOLA _Louise Cox_
From a Copley print.
DOROTHY _Lydia Field Emmet_
From a Copley print.
JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES _Artemisia Gentileschi_
In the Pitti Gallery. By permission of Fratelli Alinari.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD _Berthe Girardet_
THE DEPARTURE OF SUMMER _Louise L. Heustis_
From a Copley print.
MINIATURE OF PERSIS BLAIR _Laura Coombs Hills_
CHILD OF THE PEOPLE _Helen Hyde_
MOTHER AND CHILD _Phoebe A. Jenks_
MISS ELLEN TERRY AS "PORTIA" _Louise Jopling Rowe_
ANGELICA KAUFFMAN _Angelica Kauffman_
In the Uffizi Gallery. By permission of Fratelli Alinari.
PORTRAIT OF ROSA BONHEUR _Anna E. Klumpke_
A FAMILY OF DOGS _Matilda Lotz_
FRITZ _Clara T. MacChesney_
From a Copley print.
SAINT CATHERINE _Mary L. Macomber_
From a Copley print.
MONUMENT FOR A TOMB _Ida Matton_
In Cemetery in Gefle, Sweden.
DELFT _Blanche McManus Mansfield_
AN INDIAN AFTER THE CHASE _Rhoda Holmes Nichols_
FLOWERS _Helen Searle Pattison_
ST. CHRISTOPHER Engraved by _Caroline A. Powell_
In Doge's Palace, Venice
GENEVESE WATCHMAKER _Aimée Rapin_
In the Museum at Neuchâtel.
MAY DAY AT WHITELANDS COLLEGE, CHELSEA. _Anna Mary Richards_
FRUIT, FLOWERS, AND INSECTS _Rachel Ruysch_
In the Pitti Gallery. By permission of Fratelli Alinari.
A FROG FOUNTAIN _Janet Scudder_
A FRENCH PRINCE _Marie Vigée Le Brun_
LA VIERGE AU ROSIER _Sadie Waters_
By courtesy of Braun, Clément et Cie.
SONG OF AGES _Ethel Wright_
From a Copley print.
STATUE OF DANIEL BOONE _Enid Yandell_
Made for St. Louis Exposition.
INTRODUCTION
In studying the subject of this book I have found the names of more than
a thousand women whose attainments in the Fine Arts--in various countries
and at different periods of time before the middle of the nineteenth
century--entitle them to honorable mention as artists, and I doubt not
that an exhaustive search would largely increase this number. The stories
of many of these women have been written with more or less detail, while
of others we know little more than their names and the titles of a few of
their works; but even our scanty knowledge of them is of value.
Of the army of women artists of the last century it is not yet possible
to speak with judgment and justice, although many have executed works of
which all women may be proud.
We have some knowledge of women artists in ancient days. Few stories of
that time are so authentic as that of Kora, who made the design for the
first bas-relief, in the city of Sicyonia, in the seventh century B. C.
We have the names of other Greek women artists of the centuries
immediately preceding and following the Christian era, but we know little
of their lives and works.
Calypso was famous for the excellence of her character pictures, a
remarkable one being a portrait of Theodorus, the Juggler. A picture
found at Pompeii, now at Naples, is attributed to this artist; but its
authorship is so uncertain that little importance can be attached to it.
Pliny praised Eirene, among whose pictures was one of "An Aged Man" and a
portrait of "Alcisthenes, the Dancer."
In the annals of Roman Art we find few names of women. For this reason
Laya, who lived about a century before the Christian era, is important.
She is honored as the original painter of miniatures, and her works on
ivory were greatly esteemed. Pliny says she did not marry, but pursued
her art with absolute devotion; and he considered her pictures worthy of
great praise.
A large picture in Naples is said to be the work of Laya, but, as in the
case of Calypso, we have no assurance that it is genuine. It is also said
that Laya's portraits commanded larger prices than those of Sopolis and
Dyonisius, the most celebrated portrait painters of their time.
Our scanty knowledge of individual women artists of antiquity--mingled
with fable as it doubtless is--serves the important purpose of proving
that women, from very ancient times, were educated as artists and
creditably followed their profession beside men of the same periods.
This knowledge also awakens imagination, and we wonder in what other
ancient countries there were women artists. We know that in Egypt
inheritances descended in the female line, as in the case of the Princess
Karamat; and since we know of the great architectural works of Queen
Hashop and her journey to the land of Punt, we may reasonably assume that
the women of ancient Egypt had their share in all the interests of life.
Were there not artists among them who decorated temples and tombs with
their imperishable colors? Did not women paint those pictures of
Isis--goddess of Sothis--that are like precursors of the pictures of the
Immaculate Conception? Surely we may hope that a papyrus will be brought
to light that will reveal to us the part that women had in the decoration
of the monuments of ancient Egypt.
At present we have no reliable records of the lives and works of women
artists before the time of the Renaissance in Italy.
* * * * *
M. Taine's philosophy which regards the art of any people or period as
the necessary result of the conditions of race, religion, civilization,
and manners in the midst of which the art was produced--and esteems a
knowledge of these conditions as sufficient to account for the character
of the art, seems to me to exclude many complex and mysterious
influences, especially in individual cases, which must affect the work of
the artists. At the same time an intelligent study of the art of any
nation or period demands a study of the conditions in which it was
produced, and I shall endeavor in this _résumé_ of the history of women
in Art--mere outline as it is--to give an idea of the atmosphere in which
they lived and worked, and the influences which affected the results of
their labor.
It has been claimed that everything of importance that originated in
Italy from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century bore the distinctive
mark of Fine Art. So high an authority as John Addington Symonds is in
accord with this view, and the study of these four centuries is of
absorbing interest.
Although the thirteenth century long preceded the practice of art by
women, its influence was a factor in the artistic life into which they
later came. In this century Andrea Tan, Guido da Siena, and other devoted
souls were involved in the final struggles of Mediaeval Art, and at its
close Cimabue and Duccio da Siena--the two masters whose Madonnas were
borne in solemn procession through the streets of Florence and Siena, mid
music and the pealing of bells--had given the new impulse to painting
which brought them immortal fame. They were the heralds of the time when
poetry of sentiment, beauty of color, animation and individuality of form
should replace Mediaeval formality and ugliness; a time when the spirit of
art should be revived with an impulse prophetic of its coming glory.
But neither this portentous period nor the fourteenth century is
memorable in the annals of women artists. Not until the fifteenth, the
century of the full Renaissance, have we a record of their share in the
great rebirth.
It is important to remember that the art of the Renaissance had, in the
beginning, a distinct office to fill in the service of the Church. Later,
in historical and decorative painting, it served the State, and at
length, in portrait and landscape painting, in pictures of genre subjects
and still-life, abundant opportunity was afforded for all orders of
talent, and the generous patronage of art by church, state, and men of
rank and wealth, made Italy a veritable paradise for artists.
Gradually, with the revival of learning, artists were free to give
greater importance to secular subjects, and an element of worldliness,
and even of immorality, invaded the realm of art as it invaded the realms
of life and literature.
This was an era of change in all departments of life. Chivalry, the great
"poetic lie," died with feudalism, and the relations between men and
women became more natural and reasonable than in the preceding centuries.
Women were liberated from the narrow sphere to which they had been
relegated in the minstrel's song and poet's rhapsody, but as yet neither
time nor opportunity had been given them for the study and development
which must precede noteworthy achievement.
Remarkable as was the fifteenth century for intellectual and artistic
activity, it was not productive in its early decades of great genius in
art or letters. Its marvellous importance was apparent only at its close
and in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the works of
Leonardo, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and their followers emphasized
the value of the progressive attainments of their predecessors.
The assertion and contradiction of ideas and theories, the rivalries of
differing schools, the sweet devotion of Fra Angelico, the innovations of
Masolino and Masaccio, the theory of perspective of Paolo Uccello, the
varied works of Fabriano, Antonello da Messina, the Lippi, Botticelli,
Ghirlandajo, the Bellini, and their contemporaries, culminated in the
inimitable painting of the Cinquecento--in works still unsurpassed, ever
challenging artists of later centuries to the task of equalling or
excelling them.
The demands of the art of the Renaissance were so great, and so unlike
those of earlier days, that it is not surprising that few women, in its
beginning, attained to such excellence as to be remembered during five
centuries. Especially would it seem that an insurmountable obstacle had
been placed in the way of women, since the study of anatomy had become a
necessity to an artist. This, and kindred hindrances, too patent to
require enumeration, account for the fact that but two Italian women of
this period became so famous as to merit notice--Caterina Vigri and
Onorata Rodiana, whose stories are given in the biographical part of this
book.
* * * * *
In Flanders, late in the fourteenth and early in the fifteenth centuries,
women were engaged in the study and practice of art. In Bruges, when the
Van Eycks were inventing new methods in the preparation of colors, and
painting their wonderful pictures, beside them, and scarcely inferior to
them, was their sister, Margaretha, who sacrificed much of her artistic
fame by painting portions of her brothers' pictures, unless the fact that
they thought her worthy of thus assisting them establishes her reputation
beyond question.
In the fifteenth century we have reason to believe that many women
practised art in various departments, but so scanty and imperfect are the
records of individual artists that little more than their names are
known, and we have no absolute knowledge of the value of their works, or
where, if still existing, they are to be seen.
The art of the Renaissance reached its greatest excellence during the
last three decades of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth
century. This was a glorious period in the History of Art. The barbarism
of the Middle Ages was essentially a thing of the past, but much barbaric
splendor in the celebration of ceremonies and festivals still remained to
satisfy the artistic sense, while every-day costumes and customs lent a
picturesqueness to ordinary life. So much of the pagan spirit as endured
was modified by the spirit of the Renaissance. The result was a new order
of things especially favorable to painting.
An artist now felt himself as free to illustrate the pagan myths as to
represent the events in the lives of the Saviour, the Virgin and the
saints, and the actors in the sacred subjects were represented with the
same beauty and grace of form as were given the heroes and heroines of
Hellenic legend. St. Sebastian was as beautiful as Apollo, and the
imagination and senses were moved alike by pictures of Danae and the
Magdalene--the two subjects being often the work of the same artist.
The human form was now esteemed as something more than the mere
habitation of a soul; it was beautiful in itself and capable of awakening
unnumbered emotions in the human heart. Nature, too, presented herself in
a new aspect and inspired the artist with an ardor in her representation
such as few of the older painters had experienced in their devotion to
religious subjects.
This expansion of thought and purpose was inaugurating an art attractive
to women, to which the increasing liberty of artistic theory and
practice must logically make them welcome; a result which is a
distinguishing feature of sixteenth-century painting.
* * * * *
The sixteenth century was noteworthy for the generous patronage of art,
especially in Florence, where the policy of its ruling house could not
fail to produce marvellous results, and the history of the Medici
discloses many reasons why the bud of the Renaissance perfected its bloom
in Florence more rapidly and more gloriously than elsewhere.
For centuries Italy had been a treasure-house of Greek, Etruscan, and
Byzantine Art. In no other country had a civilization like that of
ancient Rome existed, and no other land had been so richly prepared to be
the birthplace and to promote the development of the art of the
Renaissance.
The intellectually progressive life of this period did much for the
advancement of women. The fame of Vittoria Colonna, Tullia d'Aragona,
Olympia Morata, and many others who merit association in this goodly
company, proves the generous spirit of the age, when in the scholastic
centres of Italy women were free to study all branches of learning.
The pursuit of art was equally open to them and women were pupils in all
the schools and in the studios of many masters; even Titian instructed a
woman, and all the advantages for study enjoyed by men were equally
available for women. Many names of Italian women artists could be added
to those of whom I have written in the biographical portion of this
book, but too little is known of their lives and works to be of present
interest. There is, however, little doubt that many pictures attributed
to "the School of" various masters were painted by women.
* * * * *
Art did not reach its perfection in Venice until later than in Florence,
and its special contribution, its glorious color, imparted to it an
attraction unequalled on the sensuous plane. This color surrounded the
artists of that sumptuous city of luxurious life and wondrous pageants,
and was so emphasized by the marvellous mingling of the semi-mist and the
brilliancy of its atmosphere that no man who merited the name of artist
could be insensible to its inspiration.
The old Venetian realism was followed, in the time of the Renaissance, by
startling developments. In the works of Tintoretto and Veronese there is
a combination of gorgeous draperies, splendid and often licentious
costumes, brilliant metal accessories, and every possible device for
enhancing and contrasting colors, until one is bewildered and must adjust
himself to these dazzling spectacles--religious subjects though they may
be--before any serious thought or judgment can be brought to bear upon
their artistic merit; these two great contemporaries lived and worked in
the final decades of the sixteenth century.
We know that many women painted pictures in Venice before the seventeenth
century, although we have accurate knowledge of but few, and of these an
account is given later in this book.
We who go from Paris to London in a few hours, and cross the St. Gothard
in a day, can scarcely realize the distance that separated these capitals
from the centres of Italian art in the time of the Renaissance. We have,
however, abundant proof that the sacred fire of the love of Art and
Letters was smouldering in France, Germany, and England--and when the
inspiring breath of the Renaissance was wafted beyond the Alps a flame
burst forth which has burned clearer and brighter with succeeding
centuries.
From the time of Vincent de Beauvais, who died in 1264, France had not
been wanting in illustrious scholars, but it could not be said that a
French school of art existed. François Clouet or Cloet, called Jehannet,
was born in Tours about 1500. His portraits are seen in the Gallery of
the Louvre, and have been likened to those of Holbein; but they lack the
strength and spirit of that artist; in fact, the distinguishing feature
of Clouet's work is the remarkable finish of draperies and accessories,
while the profusion of jewels distracts attention from the heads of his
subjects.
The first great French artists were of the seventeenth century, and
although Clouet was painter to Francis I. and Henry II., the former, like
his predecessors, imported artists from Italy, among whom were Leonardo
da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini.
In letters, however, there were French women of the sixteenth century who
are still famous. Marguerite de Valois was as cultivated in mind as she
was generous and noble in character. Her love of learning was not easily
satisfied. She was proficient in Hebrew, the classics, and the usual
branches of "profane letters," as well as an accomplished scholar in
philosophy and theology. As an author--though her writings are somewhat
voluminous and not without merit--she was comparatively unimportant; her
great service to letters was the result of the sympathy and encouragement
she gave to others.
Wherever she might be, she was the centre of a literary and religious
circle, as well as of the society in which she moved. She was in full
sympathy with her brother in making his "_Collège_" an institution in
which greater liberty was accorded to the expression of individual
opinion than had before been known in France, and by reason of her
protection of liberty in thought and speech she suffered much in the
esteem of the bigots of her day.
The beautiful Mlle. de Heilly--the Duchesse d'Etampes--whose influence
over Francis I. was pre-eminent, while her character was totally unlike
that of his sister, was described as "the fairest among the learned, and
the most learned among the fair." When learning was thus in favor at
Court, it naturally followed that all capacity for it was cultivated and
ordinary intelligence made the most of; and the claim that the
intellectual brilliancy of the women of the Court of Francis I. has
rarely been equalled is generally admitted. There were, however, no
artists among them--they wielded the pen rather than the brush.
* * * * *
In England, as in France, there was no native school of art in the
sixteenth century, and Flemish, Dutch, and German artists crossed the
channel when summoned to the English Court, as the Italians crossed the
Alps to serve the kings of France.
English women of this century were far less scholarly than those of Italy
and France. At the same time they might well be proud of a queen who
"could quote Pindar and Homer in the original and read every morning a
portion of Demosthenes, being also the royal mistress of eight
languages." With our knowledge of the queen's scholarship in mind we
might look to her for such patronage of art and literature as would rival
that of Lorenzo the Magnificent; but Elizabeth lacked the generosity of
the Medici and that of Marguerite de Valois. Hume tells us that "the
queen's vanity lay more in shining by her own learning than in
encouraging men of genius by her liberality."
Lady Jane Grey and the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke are familiar
examples of learned women, and many English titled and gentlewomen were
well versed in Greek and Latin, as well as in Spanish, Italian, and
French. Macaulay reminded his readers that if an Englishwoman of that day
did not read the classics she could read little, since the then existing
books--outside the Italian--would fill a shelf but scantily. Thus English
girls read Plato, and doubtless English women excelled Englishmen in
their proficiency in foreign languages, as they do at present.
* * * * *
In Germany the relative position of Art and Letters was the opposite to
that in France and England. The School of Cologne was a genuinely native
school of art in the fourteenth century. Although the Niebelungen Lied
and Gudrun, the Songs of Love and Volkslieder, as well as Mysteries and
Passion Plays, existed from an early date, we can scarcely speak of a
German Literature before the sixteenth century, when Albert Dürer and the
younger Holbein painted their great pictures, while Luther, Melanchthon
and their sympathizers disseminated the doctrines of advancing
Protestantism.
At this period, in the countries we may speak of collectively as German,
women artists were numerous. Many were miniaturists, some of whom were
invited to the English Court and received with honor.
In 1521 Albert Dürer was astonished at the number of women artists in
different parts of what, for conciseness, we may call Germany. This was
also noticeable in Holland, and Dürer wrote in his diary, in the
above-named year: "Master Gerard, of Antwerp, illuminist, has a daughter,
eighteen years of age, named Susannah, who illuminated a little book
which I purchased for a few guilders. It is wonderful that a woman could
do so much!"
Antwerp became famous for its women artists, some of whom visited France,
Italy, and Spain, and were honorably recognized for their talent and
attainments, wherever they went.
* * * * *
In the later years of the sixteenth century a difference of opinion and
purpose arose among the artists of Italy, the effects of which were shown
in the art of the seventeenth century. Two distinct schools were formed,
one of which included the conservatives who desired to preserve and
follow the manner of the masters of the Cinquecento, at the same time
making a deeper study of Nature--thus the devotional feeling and many of
the older traditions would be retained while each master could indulge
his individuality more freely than heretofore. They aimed to unite such a
style as Correggio's--who belonged to no school--with that of the
severely mannered artists of the preceding centuries. These artists were
called Eclectics, and the Bolognese school of the Carracci was the most
important centre of the movement, while Domenichino, a native of
Bologna--1581-1631--was the most distinguished painter of the school.
The original aims of the Eclectics are well summed up in a sonnet by
Agostino Carracci, which has been translated as follows: "Let him who
wishes to be a good painter acquire the design of Rome, Venetian action
and Venetian management of shade, the dignified color of Lombardy--that
is of Leonardo da Vinci--the terrible manner of Michael Angelo, Titian's
truth and nature, the sovereign purity of Correggio's style and the just
symmetry of a Raphael, the decorum and well-grounded study of Tibaldi,
the invention of the learned Primaticcio, and a _little_ of
Parmigianino's grace; but without so much study and weary labor let him
apply himself to imitate the works which our Niccolò--dell Abbate--left
us here." Kugler calls this "a patchwork ideal," which puts the matter in
a nut-shell.
At one period the Eclectics produced harmonious pictures in a manner
attractive to women, many of whom studied under Domenichino, Giovanni
Lanfranco, Guido Reni, the Campi, and others. Sofonisba Anguisciola,
Elisabetta Sirani, and the numerous women artists of Bologna were of this
school.
The greatest excellence of this art was of short duration; it declined as
did the literature, and indeed, the sacred and political institutions of
Italy in the seventeenth century. It should not, however, be forgotten,
that the best works of Guercino, the later pictures of Annibale Carracci,
and the important works of Domenichino and Salvator Rosa belong to this
period.
The second school was that of the Naturalists, who professed to study
Nature alone, representing with brutal realism her repulsive aspects.
Naples was the centre of these painters, and the poisoning of Domenichino
and many other dark and terrible deeds have been attributed to them. Few
women were attracted to this school, and the only one whose association
with the Naturalisti is recorded--Aniella di Rosa--paid for her temerity
with her life.
* * * * *
In Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, and other Italian cities, there were,
in the seventeenth century, many women who made enviable reputations as
artists, some of whom were also known for their literary and musical
attainments. Anna Maria Ardoina, of Messina, made her studies in Rome.
She was gifted as a poet and artist, and so excelled in music that she
had the distinguished honor of being elected to the Academy of Arcadia.
Not a few gifted women of this time are remembered for their noble
charities. Chiara Varotari, under the instruction of her father and her
brother, called Padovanino, became a good painter. She was also honored
as a skilful nurse, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany placed her portrait in
his gallery on account of his admiration and respect for her as a
comforter of the suffering.
Giovanna Garzoni, a miniaturist, conferred such benefits upon the Academy
of St. Luke that a monument was there erected to her memory. Other
artists founded convents, became nuns, and imprinted themselves upon
their age in connection with various honorable institutions and
occupations.
* * * * *
French Art in the seventeenth century was academic and prosaic, lacking
the spontaneity, joyousness, and intensely artistic feeling of Italian
Art--a heritage from previous centuries which had not been lost, and in
which France had no part. The works of Poussin, which have been likened
to painted reliefs, afford an excellent example of French Art in his
time--1594-1665--and this in spite of the fact that he worked and studied
much in Rome.
The Académie des Beaux-Arts was established by Louis XIV., and there was
a rapidly growing interest in art. As yet, however, the women of France
affected literature rather than painting, and in the seventeenth century
they were remarkable for their scholarly attainments and their influence
in the world of letters.
Madame de Maintenon patronized learning; at the Hôtel Rambouillet men and
women of genius met the world of rank and fashion on common ground.
Madame Dacier, of whom Voltaire said, "No woman has ever rendered greater
services to literature," made her translations from the classics; Madame
de Sevigné wrote her marvellous letters; Mademoiselle de Scudéry and
Madame Lafayette their novels; Catherine Bernard emulated the manner of
Racine in her dramas; while Madame de Guyon interpreted the mystic Song
of Solomon.
Of French women artists of this period we can mention several names, but
they were so overshadowed by authors as to be unimportant, unless, like
Elizabeth Chéron, they won both artistic and literary fame.
* * * * *
The seventeenth century was an age of excellence in the art of Flanders,
Belgium, and Holland, and is known as the second great epoch of painting
in the Netherlands, this name including the three countries just
mentioned.
After the calamities suffered under Charles V. and Philip II., with
returning peace and prosperity an art was developed, both original and
rich in artistic power. The States-General met in 1600, and the greatest
artists of the Netherlands did their work in the succeeding fifty years;
and before the century closed the appreciation of art and the patronage
which had assured its elevation were things of the past.
Rubens was twenty-three years old in 1600, just ready to begin his work
which raised the school of Belgium to its highest attainments. When we
remember how essentially his art dominated his own country and was
admired elsewhere, we might think--I had almost said fear--that his
brilliant, vigorous, and voluptuous manner would attract all artists of
his day to essay his imitation. But among women artists Madame O'Connell
was the first who could justly be called his imitator, and her work was
done in the middle of the nineteenth century.
When we turn to the genre painting of the Flemish and Dutch artists we
find that they represented scenes in the lives of coarse, drunken boors
and vulgar women--works which brought these artists enduring fame by
reason of their wonderful technique; but we can mention one woman only,
Anna Breughel, who seriously attempted the practice of this art. She is
thought to have been of the family of Velvet Breughel, who lived in the
early part of the seventeenth century.
Like Rubens, Rembrandt numbered few women among his imitators. The women
of his day and country affected pleasing delineations of superficial
motives, and Rembrandt's earnestness and intensity were seemingly above
their appreciation--certainly far above their artistic powers.
A little later so many women painted delicate and insipid subjects that I
have not space even for their names. A critic has said that the Dutch
school "became a nursery for female talent." It may have reached the
Kindergarten stage, but went no farther.
Flower painting attained great excellence in the seventeenth century. The
most elaborate masters in this art were the brothers De Heem, Willem
Kalf, Abraham Mignon, and Jan van Huysum. Exquisite as the pictures by
these masters are, Maria van Oosterwyck and Rachel Ruysch disputed
honors with them, and many other women excelled in this delightful art.
An interesting feature in art at this time was the intimate association
of men and women artists and the distinction of women thus associated.
Gerard Terburg, whose pictures now have an enormous value, had two
sisters, Maria and Gezina, whose genre pictures were not unworthy of
comparison with the works of their famous brother. Gottfried Schalken,
remarkable for his skill in the representation of scenes by candle light,
was scarcely more famous than his sister Maria. Eglon van der Neer is
famous for his pictures of elegant women in marvellous satin gowns. He
married Adriana Spilberg, a favorite portrait painter. The daughters of
the eminent engraver Cornelius Visscher, Anna and Maria, were celebrated
for their fine etching on glass, and by reason of their poems and their
scholarly acquirements they were called the "Dutch Muses," and were
associated with the learned men of their day. This list, though
incomplete, suggests that the co-education of artists bore good fruit in
their co-operation in their profession.
* * * * *
In England, while there was a growing interest in painting, the standard
was that of foreign schools, especially the Dutch. Foreign artists found
a welcome and generous patronage at the English Court. Mary Beale and
Anne Carlisle are spoken of as English artists, and a few English women
were miniaturists. Among these was Susannah Penelope Gibson, daughter of
Richard Gibson, the Dwarf. While these women were not wanting in
artistic taste, they were little more than copyists of the Dutch artists
with whom they had associated.
* * * * *
In the early years of the seventeenth century there were a number of
Danish women who were painters, engravers, and modellers in wax. The
daughter of King Christian IV., Elenora Christina, and her daughter,
Helena Christina, were reputable artists. The daughter of Christian V.,
Sophie Hedwig, made a reputation as a portrait, landscape, and flower
painter, which extended beyond her own country; and Anna Crabbe painted a
series of portraits of Danish princes, and added to them descriptive
verses of her own composition.
* * * * *
The Art of Spain attained its greatest glory in the seventeenth
century--the century of Velasquez, Murillo, Ribera, and other less
distinguished but excellent artists.
In the last half of this century women artists were prominent in the
annals of many Spanish cities. In the South mention is made of these
artists, who were of excellent position and aristocratic connection. In
Valencia, the daughter of the great portrait painter Alonzo Coello was
distinguished in both painting and music. She married Don Francesco de
Herrara, Knight of Santiago.
In Cordova the sister of Palomino y Vasco--the artist who has been called
the Vasari of Spain on account of his Museo Pictorio--was recognized as a
talented artist. In Madrid, Velasquez numbered several noble ladies among
his pupils; but no detailed accounts of the works of these artists is
available--if any such exist--and their pictures are in private
collections.
* * * * *
The above outline of the general conditions of Art in the seventeenth
century will suggest the reasons for there being a larger number of women
artists in Italy than elsewhere--especially as they were pupils in the
studios of the best masters as well as in the schools of the Carracci and
other centres of art study.
* * * * *
Italian artists of the eighteenth century have been called scene
painters, and, in truth, many of their works impress one as hurried
attempts to cover large spaces. Originality was wanting and a wearisome
mediocrity prevailed. At the same time certain national artistic
qualities were apparent; good arrangement of figures and admirable
effects of color still characterized Italian painting, but the result
was, on the whole, academic and uninteresting.
The ideals cherished by older artists were lost, and nothing worthy to
replace them inspired their followers. The sincerity, earnestness, and
devotion of the men who served church and state in the decoration of
splendid monuments would have been out of place in the service of
amateurs and in the decoration of the salons and boudoirs of the rich,
and the painting of this period had little permanent value, in comparison
with that of preceding centuries.
Italian women, especially in the second half of the century, were
professors in universities, lectured to large audiences, and were
respectfully consulted by men of science and learning in the various
branches of scholarship to which they were devoted. Unusual honors were
paid them, as in the case of Maria Portia Vignoli, to whom a statue was
erected in the public square of Viterbo to commemorate her great learning
in natural science.
An artist, Matilda Festa, held a professorship in the Academy of St. Luke
in Rome, and Maria Maratti, daughter of the Roman painter Carlo Maratti,
made a good reputation both as an artist and a poetess.
In Northern Italy many women were famous in sculpture, painting, and
engraving. At least forty could be named, artists of good repute, whose
lives were lacking in any unusual interest, and whose works are in
private collections. One of these was a princess of Parma, who married
the Archduke Joseph of Austria, and was elected to the Academy of Vienna
in 1789.
* * * * *
In France, in the beginning of this century Watteau, 1684-1721, painted
his interesting pictures of _La Belle Société_, reproducing the court
life, costumes, and manners of the reign of Louis XIV. with fidelity,
grace, and vivacity. Later in the century, Greuze, 1725-1805, with his
attractive, refined, and somewhat mannered style, had a certain
influence. Claude Vernet, 1714-1789, and David, 1748-1825, each great in
his way, influenced the nineteenth as well as the eighteenth century.
Though Vien, 1716-1809, made a great effort to revive classic art, he
found little sympathy with his aim until the works of his pupil David
won recognition from the world of the First Empire.
French Art of this period may be described by a single
word--eclectic--and this choice by each important artist of the style he
would adopt culminated in the Rococo School, which may be defined as the
unusual and fantastic in art. It was characterized by good technique and
pleasing color, but lacked purpose, depth, and warmth of feeling. As
usual in a _pot-pourri_, it was far enough above worthlessness not to be
ignored, but so far short of excellence as not to be admired.
In France during this century there was an army of women artists,
painters, sculptors, and engravers. Of a great number we know the names
only; in fact, of but two of these, Adelaide Vincent and Elizabeth Vigée
Le Brun, have we reliable knowledge of their lives and works.
The eighteenth century is important in the annals of women artists, since
their numbers then exceeded the collective number of those who had
preceded them--so far as is known--from the earliest period in the
history of art. In a critical review of the time, however, we find a
general and active interest in culture and art among women rather than
any considerable number of noteworthy artists.
Germany was the scene of the greatest activity of women artists. France
held the second place and Italy the third, thus reversing the conditions
of preceding centuries.
* * * * *
Many German women emulated the examples of the earlier flower painters,
but no one was so important as to merit special attention, though a
goodly number were elected to academies and several appointed painters to
the minor courts.
Among the genre and historical painters we find the names of Anna Amalia
of Brunswick and Anna Maria, daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, both
of whom were successful artists.
In Berlin and Dresden the interest in art was much greater in the
eighteenth than in previous centuries, and with this new impulse many
women devoted themselves to various specialties in art. Miniature and
enamel painting were much in vogue, and collections of these works, now
seen in museums and private galleries, are exquisitely beautiful and
challenge our admiration, not only for their beauty, but for the delicacy
of their handling and the infinite patience demanded for their execution.
The making of medals was carried to great excellence by German women, as
may be seen in a medal of Queen Sophie Charlotte, which is preserved in
the royal collection of medals. It is the work of Rosa Elizabeth
Schwindel, of Leipsic, who was well known in Berlin in the beginning of
the century.
The cutting of gems was also extensively done by women. Susannah Dorsch
was famous for her accomplishment in this art. Her father and grandfather
had been gem-cutters, and Susannah could not remember at what age she
began this work. So highly was she esteemed as an artist that medals were
made in her honor.
As frequently happens in a study of this kind, I find long lists of the
names of women artists of this period of whose lives and works I find no
record, while the events related in other cases are too trivial for
repetition. This is especially true in Holland, where we find many names
of Dutch women who must have been reputable artists, since they are
mentioned in Art Chronicles of their time; but we know little of their
lives and can mention no pictures executed by them.
* * * * *
A national art now existed in England. Hogarth, who has been called the
Father of English Painting, was a man of too much originality to be a
mere imitator of foreign artists. He devoted his art to the
representation of the follies of his time. As a satirist he was eminent,
but his mirth-provoking pictures had a deeper purpose than that of
amusing. Lord Orford wrote: "Mirth colored his pictures, but benevolence
designed them. He smiled like Socrates, that men might not be offended at
his lectures, and might learn to laugh at their own folly."
Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough were born and died in the
eighteenth century; their famous works were contemporary with the
founding of the Royal Academy in 1768, when these artists, together with
Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, were among its original members.
It was a fashion in England at this time for women to paint; they
principally affected miniature and water-color pictures, but of the many
who called themselves artists few merit our attention; they practised but
a feeble sort of imitative painting; their works of slight importance
cannot now be named, while their lives were usually commonplace and void
of incident. Of the few exceptions to this rule I have written in the
later pages of this book.
* * * * *
The suggestion that the nineteenth century cannot yet be judged as to its
final effect in many directions has already been made, and of nothing is
this more true than of its Art. Of one phase of this period, however, we
may speak with confidence. No other century of which we know the history
has seen so many changes--such progress, or such energy of purpose so
largely rewarded as in the century we are considering.
To one who has lived through more than three score years of this period,
no fairy tale is more marvellous than the changes in the department of
daily life alone.
When I recall the time when the only mode of travel was by stage-coach,
boat, or private carriage--when the journey from Boston to St. Louis
demanded a week longer in time than we now spend in going from Boston to
Egypt--when no telegraph existed--when letter postage was twenty-five
cents and the postal service extremely primitive--when no house was
comfortably warmed and women carried foot-stoves to unheated
churches--when candles and oil lamps were the only means of "lighting
up," and we went about the streets at night with dim lanterns--when women
spun and wove and sewed with their hands only, and all they accomplished
was done at the hardest--when in our country a young girl might almost as
reasonably attempt to reach the moon as to become an artist--remembering
all this it seems as if an army of magicians must incessantly have waved
their wands above us, and that human brains and hands could not have
invented and put in operation the innumerable changes in our daily life
during the last half-century.
When, in the same way, we review the changes that have taken place in the
domains of science, in scholarly research in all directions, in printing,
bookmaking, and the methods of illustrating everything that is
printed--from the most serious and learned writing to advertisements
scattered over all-out-of-doors--when we add to these the revolutions in
many other departments of life and industry, we must regard the
nineteenth as the century _par excellence_ of expansion, and in various
directions an epoch-making era.
* * * * *
When we turn to our special subject we find an activity and expansion in
nineteenth-century art quite in accordance with the spirit of the time.
This expansion is especially noticeable in the increased number of
subjects represented in works of art, and in the invention of new methods
of artistic expression.
Prior to this period there had been a certain selection of such subjects
for artistic representation as could be called "picturesque," and though
more ordinary and commonplace subjects might be rendered with such
skill--such drawing, color, and technique--as to demand approbation, it
was given with a certain condescension and the feeling was manifested
that these subjects, though treated with consummate art, were not
artistic. The nineteenth century has signally changed these theories.
Nothing that makes a part in human experience is now too commonplace or
too unusual and mysterious to afford inspiration to painter and sculptor;
while the normal characteristics of human beings and the circumstances
common to their lives are not omitted, the artist frequently endeavors to
express in his work the most subtle experiences of the heart and soul,
and to embody in his picture or statue an absolutely psychologic
phenomenon.
The present easy communication with all nations has awakened interest in
the life of countries almost unknown to us a half-century ago. So
customary is it for artists to wander far and wide, seeking new motives
for their works, that I felt no surprise when I recently received a
letter from a young American woman who is living and painting in Biskra.
How short a time has passed since this would have been thought
impossible!
It is also true that subjects not new in art are treated in a
nineteenth-century manner. This is noticeable in the picturing of
historical subjects. The more intimate knowledge of the world enables the
historical painter of the present to impart to his representations of the
important events of the past a more human and emotional element than
exists in the historical art of earlier centuries. In a word,
nineteenth-century art is sympathetic, and has found inspiration in all
countries and classes and has so treated its subjects as to be
intelligible to all, from the favored children for whom Kate Greenaway,
Walter Crane, and many others have spent their delightful talents, to men
and women of all varieties of individual tastes and of all degrees of
ability to comprehend and appreciate artistic representations.
A fuller acquaintance with the art and art-methods of countries of which
but little had before been known has been an element in art expansion.
Technical methods which have not been absolutely adopted by European and
English-speaking artists have yet had an influence upon their art. The
interest in Japanese Art is the most important example of such influence,
and it is also true that Japanese artists have been attracted to the
study of the art of America and Europe, while some foreign artists
resident in Japan--notably Miss Helen Hyde, a young American--have
studied and practised Japanese painting to such purpose that Japanese
juries have accorded the greatest excellence and its honors to their
works, exhibited in competition with native artists.
Other factors in the expansion of art have been found in photography and
the various new methods of illustration that have filled books,
magazines, and newspapers with pictures of more or less (?) merit. Even
the painting of "posters" has not been scorned by good artists, some of
whom have treated them in such a manner as to make them worthy a place in
museums where only works of true merit are exhibited.
Other elements in the nineteenth-century expansion in art are seen in the
improved productions of the so-called Arts and Crafts which are of
inestimable value in cultivating the artistic sense in all classes.
Another influence in the same direction is the improved decoration of
porcelain, majolica, and pottery, which, while not equal to that of
earlier date in the esteem of connoisseurs, brings artistic objects to
the sight and knowledge of all, at prices suited to moderate means.
* * * * *
In America the unparalleled increase of Free Libraries has brought, not
books alone, but collections of photographs and other reproductions of
the best Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in the world, as well as
medals, book-plates, artistic bindings, etc., within reach of students of
art.