a surprise to find, in a comparatively small town, a fine Art Gallery,
rich in a variety of precious objects. Such an one is the Art Museum of
Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Me. The edifice itself is the most
beautiful of the works by McKim that I have seen. The frescoes by La
Farge and Vedder are most satisfactory, and one exhibit, among many of
interest--that of original drawings by famous Old Masters--would make
this Museum a worthy place of pilgrimage. Can one doubt that such a
Museum must be an element of artistic development in those who are in
contact with it?
I cannot omit saying that this splendid monument to the appreciation of
art and to great generosity was the gift of women, while the artists who
perfected its architecture and decorations are Americans; it is an
impressive expression of the expansion of American Art in the nineteenth
century.
* * * * *
The advantages for the study of Art have been largely improved and
increased in this period. In numberless studios small classes of pupils
are received; in schools of Design, schools of National Academies, and in
those of individual enterprise, all possible advantages for study under
the direction of the best artists are provided, and these are
supplemented by scholarships which relieve the student of limited means
from providing for daily needs.
All these opportunities are shared by men and women alike. Every
advantage is as freely at the command of one as of the other, and we
equal, in this regard, the centuries of the Renaissance, when women were
Artists, Students, and Professors of Letters and of Law, filling these
positions with honor, as women do in these days.
In 1859 T. Adolphus Trollope, in his "Decade of Italian Women," in which
he wrote of the scholarly women of the Renaissance, says: "The degree in
which any social system has succeeded in ascertaining woman's proper
position, and in putting her into it, will be a very accurate test of the
progress it has made in civilization. And the very general and growing
conviction that our own social arrangements, as they exist at present,
have not attained any satisfactory measure of success in this respect,
would seem, therefore, to indicate that England in her nineteenth century
has not yet reached years of discretion after all."
Speaking of Elisabetta Sirani he says: "The humbly born artist, admirable
for her successful combination in perfect compatibility of all the duties
of home and studio." Of how many woman artists we can now say this.
Trollope's estimate of the position of women in England, which was not
unlike that in America, forty-five years ago, when contrasted with that
of the present day, affords another striking example of the expansion of
the nineteenth century.
* * * * *
Although no important changes occur without some preparation, this may be
so gradual and unobtrusive in its work that the result appears to have a
Minerva-like birth. Doubtless there were influences leading up to the
remarkable landscape painting of this century. The "Norwich School,"
which took shape in 1805, was founded by Crome, among whose associates
were Cotman, Stark, and Vincent. Crome exhibited his works at the Royal
Academy in 1806, and the twelve following years, and died in 1821 when
the pictures of Constable were attracting unusual attention; indeed, it
may be said that by his exhibitions at the Royal Academy, Constable
inaugurated modern landscape painting, which is a most important feature
of art in this century.
Not forgetting the splendid landscapes of the Dutch masters, of the early
Italians, of Claude and Wilson, the claim that landscape painting was
perfected only in the nineteenth century, and then largely as the result
of the works of English artists, seems to me to be well founded. To this
excellence Turner, contemporary with Constable, David Cox, De Wint,
Bonington, and numerous others gloriously contributed.
The English landscapes exhibited at the French Salon in the third decade
of the century produced a remarkable effect, and emphasized the interest
in landscape painting already growing in France, and later so splendidly
developed by Rousseau, Corot, Millet, and their celebrated
contemporaries. In Germany the Achenbachs, Lessing, and many other
artists were active in this movement, while in America, Innes, A. H.
Wyant, and Homer Martin, with numerous followers, were raising landscape
art to an eminence before unknown.
Formerly landscapes had been used as backgrounds, oftentimes attractive
and beautiful, while the real purpose of the pictures centred in the
human figures. The distinctive feature of nineteenth-century landscape is
the representation of Nature alone, and the variety of method used and
the differing aims of the artists cover the entire gamut between absolute
Realism and the most pronounced Impressionism.
* * * * *
About the middle of the century there emerged from the older schools two
others which may be called the Realist and Idealist, and indeed there
were those to whom both these terms could be applied, both methods being
united in their remarkable works. Of the Realists Corot and Courbet are
distinguished, as were Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau among the
Idealists.
Millet, with his marvellous power of observation, painted his landscapes
with the fidelity of his school in that art, and so keenly realized the
religious element in the peasant life about him--the poetry of these
people--that he portrayed his figures in a manner quite his own--at the
same time realistic and full of idealism. MacColl in his
"Nineteenth-Century Art" called Millet "the most religious figure in
modern art after Rembrandt," and adds that "he discovered a patience of
beauty, a reconciling, in the concert of landscape mystery with labor."
Shall we call Bastien Lepage a follower of Millet, or say that in these
men there was a unity of spirit; that while they realized the poetry of
their subjects intensely, they fully estimated the reality as well?
The "Joan of Arc" is a phenomenal example of this art. The landscape is
carefully realistic, and like that in which a French peasant girl of any
period would live. But here realism ceases and the peasant girl becomes a
supremely exalted being, entranced by a vision of herself in full armor.
This art, at once realistic and idealistic, is an achievement of the
nineteenth century--so clear and straightforward in its methods as to
explain itself far better than words can explain it.
* * * * *
Contemporary with these last-named artists were the Pre-raphaelites. The
centre of this school was called the Brotherhood, which was founded by J.
E. Millais, W. Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Michael
Rossetti. To these were added Thomas Woolner the sculptor, James Collins,
and F. G. Stephens. Other important artists known as Pre-raphaelites, not
belonging to the Brotherhood, are Ford Madox Brown and Burne Jones, as
well as the water-color painters, Mason, Walker, Boyce, and Goodwin.
The aim of these artists was to represent with sincerity what they saw,
and the simple sincerity of painters who preceded Raphael led them to
choose a name which Ruskin called unfortunate, "because the principles
on which its members are working are neither pre- nor post-Raphaelite,
but everlasting. They are endeavoring to paint with the highest possible
degree of completion what they see in nature, without reference to
conventional established rules; but by no means to imitate the style of
any past epoch. To paint Nature--Nature as it was around them, by the
help of modern science, was the aim of the Brotherhood."
At the time when the Pre-raphaelite School came into being the art of
other lands as well as that of England was in need of an awakening
impulse, and the Pre-raphaelite revolt against conventionality and the
machine-like art of the period roused such interest, criticism, and
opposition as to stimulate English art to new effort, and much of its
progress in the last half-century is doubtless due to the discussions of
the theories of this movement as well as of the works it produced.
Pre-raphaelitism, scorned and ridiculed in its beginning, came to be
appreciated in a degree that at first seemed impossible, and though its
apostles were few, its influence was important. The words of Burne Jones,
in which he gave his own ideal, appeal to many artists and lovers of art:
"I mean by a picture a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never
was, never will be--in a light better than any light that ever shone--in
a land no one can define or remember, only desire--and the forms divinely
beautiful."
Rossetti's "Girlhood of Virgin Mary," Holman Hunt's "Light of the World,"
and Millais' "Christ in the House of His Parents" have been called the
Trilogy of Pre-raphaelite Art.
Millais did not long remain a strict disciple of this school, but soon
adopted the fuller freedom of his later work, which may be called that of
modern naturalism. Rossetti remained a Pre-raphaelite through his short
life, but his works could not be other than individual, and their
distinct personality almost forbade his being considered a disciple of
any school.
Holman Hunt may be called the one persistent follower of this cult. He
has consistently embodied his convictions in his pictures, the value of
which to English art cannot yet be determined. This is also true of the
marvellous work of Burne Jones; but although they have but few faithful
followers, Pre-raphaelite art no longer needs defence nor apology.
Its secondary effect is far-reaching. To it may be largely attributed the
more earnest study of Nature as well as the simplicity of treatment and
lack of conventionality which now characterizes English art to an extent
before unknown.
* * * * *
Impressionism is the most distinctive feature of nineteenth-century art,
and is too large a subject to be treated in an introduction--any proper
consideration of it demands a volume.
The entire execution of a picture out-of-doors was sometimes practised by
Constable, more frequently by Turner, and some of the peculiarities of
the French impressionist artists were shared by the English landscape
painters of the early part of the century. While no one could dream of
calling Constable an impressionist, it is interesting to recall the
reception of his "Opening of Waterloo Bridge." Ridiculed in London, it
was accepted in Paris, and is now honored at the Royal Academy.
This picture was covered with pure white, in impasto, a method dear to
impressionists. Was Constable in advance of his critics? is a question
that comes involuntarily to mind as we read the life of this artist, and
recall the excitement which the exhibition of his works caused at the
Salon of 1824, and the interest they aroused in Delacroix and other
French painters.
The word Impressionism calls to mind the names of Manet, Monet, Pissaro,
Mme. Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, Whistler, Sargent, Hassam, and many
others. Impressionists exhibited their pictures in Paris as early as
1874; not until 1878 were they seen to advantage in London, when Whistler
exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery; and the New English Art Club, founded
in 1885, was the outcome of the need of this school to be better
represented in its special exhibitions than was possible in other
galleries.
In a comprehensive sense Impressionism includes all artists who represent
their subjects with breadth and collectiveness rather than in detail--in
the way in which we see a view at the first glance, before we have time
to apprehend its minor parts. The advocates of impressionism now claim
that it is the most reformatory movement in modern painting; it is
undeniably in full accord with the spirit of the time in putting aside
older methods and conventions and introducing a new manner of seeing and
representing Nature.
The differing phases of Painting in the nineteenth century have had their
effect upon that art as a whole. Each one has been important, not only in
the country of its special development, but in other lands, each
distinctive quality being modified by individual and national
characteristics.
* * * * *
In the early decades of the past century Sculpture was "classic" and
conventional rather than natural and sincere. A revolt against these
conditions produced such artists as Rodin, St. Gaudens, MacMonnies, and
many less famous men who have put life, spirit, and nature into their
art.
In Sculpture as in Painting many more subjects are treated than were
formerly thought suited to representation in marble and bronze, and a
large proportion of these recent _motifs_ demand a broad method of
treatment--a manner often called "unfinished" by those who approve only
the smooth polish of an antique Venus, and would limit sculpture to the
narrow class of subjects with which this smoothness harmonizes.
The best sculptors of the present treat the minor details of their
subjects in a sketchy, or, as some critics contend, in a rough imperfect
manner, while others find that this treatment of detail, combined with a
careful, comprehensive treatment of the important parts, emphasizes the
meaning and imparts strength to the whole, as no smoothness can do.
Although the highest possibilities in sculpture may not yet be reached,
it is animated with new spirit of life and nature. Nineteenth-century
aims and modes of expression have greatly enlarged its province. Like
Painting, Sculpture has become democratic. It glorifies Labor and all
that is comprised in the term "common, every-day life," while it also
commemorates noble and useful deeds with genuine sympathy and an
intelligent appreciation of the best to which humanity attains; at the
same time poetical fancies, myths, and legends are not neglected, but are
rendered with all possible delicacy and tenderness.
At present a great number of women are sculptors. The important
commissions which are given them in connection with the great expositions
of the time--the execution of memorial statues and monuments, fountains,
and various other works which is confided to them, testifies to their
excellence in their art with an emphasis beyond that of words.
* * * * *
Want of space forbids any special mention of etching, metal work,
enamelling, designing, and decorative work in many directions in which
women in great numbers are engaged; indeed, in what direction can we look
in which women are not employed--I believe I may say by thousands--in all
the minor arts? Between the multitude that pursue the Fine Arts and
kindred branches for a maintenance--and are rarely heard of--and those
fortunate ones who are commissioned to execute important works, there is
an enormous middle class. Paris is their Mecca, but they are known in all
art centres, and it is by no means unusual for an artist to study under
Dutch, German, and Italian masters, as well as French.
The present method of study in Paris--in such academies as that of Julian
and the Colarossi--secures to the student the criticism and advice of the
best artists of the day, while in summer--in the country and by the
sea--there are artistic colonies in which students lead a delightful
life, still profiting by the instruction of eminent masters.
Year by year the opportunities for art-study by women have been increased
until they are welcome in the schools of the world, with rare exceptions.
The highest goal seems to have been reached by their admission to the
competition for the _Grand prix de Rome_ conferred by _l'École des Beaux
Arts_.
I regret that the advantages of the American Art Academy in Rome are not
open to women. The fact that for centuries women have been members and
professors in the Academy of St. Luke, and in view of the recent action
of _l'École des Beaux Arts_, this narrowness of the American Academy in
the Eternal City is especially pronounced.
One can but approve the encouragement afforded women artists in France,
by the generosity with which their excellence is recognized.
To be an officer in the French Academy is an honor surpassed in France by
that of the Legion of Honor only. Within a twelvemonth two hundred and
seventy-five women have been thus distinguished, twenty-eight of them
being painters and designers. From this famous Academy down, through the
International Expositions, the Salons, and the numberless exhibitions in
various countries, a large proportion of medals and other honors are
conferred on women, who, having now been accorded all privileges
necessary for the pursuit of art and for its recompense, will surely
prove that they richly merit every good that can be shared with them.
<b>AARESTRUP, MARIE HELENE.</b> Born at Flekkefjord, Norway, 1829. She
made her studies in Bergen, under Reusch; under Tessier in Paris; and
Vautier in Düsseldorf. She excelled in genre and portrait painting. Her
"Playing Child" and "Shepherd Boy" are in the Art Union in Christiania;
the "Interior of Hotel Cluny" and a "Flower Girl" are in the Museum at
Gottenburg.
<b>ABBATT, AGNES DEAN.</b> Bronze medal, Cooper Union; silver medal,
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association. Member of American Water
Color Society.
[_No reply to circular_.]
<b>ABBEMA, MME. LOUISE.</b> Officer of the Mérite des Arts; honorable
mention, Salon of 1881; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; Hors
Concours, 1903, at Exposition of Limoges. Born at Étampes, 1858. Pupil of
Chaplin, Henner, and Carolus-Duran. She exhibited a "Portrait of Sarah
Bernhardt," 1876; "The Seasons," 1883; "Portrait of M. Abbema," 1887;
"Among the Flowers," 1893; "An April Morning," 1894; "Winter," 1895, etc.
This artist has also executed numerous decorations for ceilings and
decorative panels for private houses. Her picture of "Breakfast in the
Conservatory" is in the Museum of Pau.
Mme. Abbema illustrated "La Mer," by Maizeroy, and has contributed to the
_Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ and several other Parisian publications.
At the Salon of the Artistes Français, 1902, she exhibited the "Portrait
of Pierre," and in 1903 a portrait of the Countess P. S.
Mme. Abbema wears her hair short, and affects such absolute simplicity in
her costume that at first sight she reminds one of a charming young man.
In no other direction, however, is there a masculine touch about this
delightful artist. She has feminine grace, a love for poetry, a passion
for flowers, which she often introduces in her pictures; she has, in
short, a truly womanly character, which appears in the refinement and
attractiveness of her work.
[_No reply to circular_.]
<b>ABBOTT, KATHERINE G.</b> Bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; honorable
mention, Buffalo Exposition, 1901.
[_No reply to circular_.]
<b>ACHILLE-FOULD, MLLE. GEORGES.</b> Medal, third class, Versailles, 1888;
honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1894; medal, third class, 1895; medal,
second class, 1897; Hors Concours; bronze medal at Paris Exposition,
1900. Officer of Public Instruction; member of the Société des Artistes
Français. Born at Asnières (Seine). Pupil of Cabanel, Antoine Vollon, and
Léon Comerre.
A painter of figure subjects and portraits. Several of her works are in
private collections in the United States. Among these are the
"Flower-Seller," the "Knife-Grinder," "M. de Richelieu's Love Knots,"
exhibited in the Salon of 1902, and "Going to School."
"The Dull Season" is in London; "Cinderella" and many others in Paris.
This artist, when still in short skirts, sent her first picture, "In the
Market Place," to the Salon of 1884. She is most industrious, and her
history, as she herself insists, is in her pictures. She has been
surrounded by a sympathetic and artistic atmosphere. Her mother was an
art critic, who, before her second marriage to Prince Stirberg, signed
her articles Gustave Haller. Her home, the Château de Bécon, is an ideal
home for an artist, and one can well understand her distaste for realism
and the professional model.
"M. de Richelieu's Love Knots" is very attractive and was one of the
successes of 1902. He is a fine gentleman to whom a bevy of young girls
is devoted, tying his ribbons, and evidently admiring him and his
exquisite costume. The girls are smiling and much amused, while the young
man has an air of immense satisfaction.
At the Salon of 1903 Mlle. Fould exhibited "La
Chatouilleuse"--Tickling--and "Nasturtiums." The first shows a young
woman seated, wearing a décolleté gown, while a mischievous companion
steals up behind and tickles her neck with a twig. It is less attractive
than many of this artist's pictures.
In 1890 Mlle. Fould painted a portrait of her stepfather, and for a time
devoted herself to portraits rather than to the subjects she had before
studied with such success. In 1893 she painted a portrait of Rosa
Bonheur, in her studio, while the latter paused from her work on a large
picture of lions. This portrait presents the great animal painter in a
calm, thoughtful mood, in the midst of her studio, surrounded by sketches
and all the accessories of her work. In the opinion of many who knew the
great artist most intimately this is the best portrait of her in
existence.
Mlle. Fould, at different periods, has painted legendary subjects, at
other times religious pictures, but in my judgment the last were the
least successful of her works.
Her "Cinderella" is delightful; the two "Merry Wives of Windsor," sitting
on the basket in which Falstaff is hidden, and from which he is pushing
out a hand, is an excellent illustration of this ever-amusing story, and,
indeed, all her pictures of this class may well be praised.
To the Exposition of 1900 she sent an allegorical picture, called "The
Gold Mine." A young woman in gold drapery drops gold coins from her
hands. In the background is the entrance to a mine, lighted dimly by a
miner's lamp, while a pickaxe lies at the feet of the woman; this picture
was accorded a bronze medal.
<b>ADAM, MME. NANNY.</b> First prize from the Union of Women Painters and
Sculptors, Paris. Medal from the Salon des Artistes Français, and "honors
in many other cities." Member of the Société des Artistes Français. Born
at Crest (Drôme). Her studies were made under Jean Paul Laurens. Her
pictures called "Calme du Soir" and "Le Soir aux Martignes" are in
private collections. "Les Remparts de la Ville Close, Concarneau,"
exhibited at the Salon Artistes Français in 1902, was purchased by the
French Government. In 1903 she exhibited "June Twilight, Venice," and
"Morning Fog, Holland."
<b>ADELSPARRE, SOPHIE ALBERTINE.</b> Born in Oland 1808-62. In Stockholm
she received instruction from the sculptor Ovarnström and the painter
Ekman; after her father's death she went to Paris and entered the atelier
of Cogniet, and later did some work under the direction of her countrymen
Wickenberg and Wahlbom. She had, at this time, already made herself known
through her copies of some of the Italian masters and Murillo. Her copy
of the Sistine Madonna was placed by Queen Josephine in the Catholic
church at Christiania. After her return from Dresden where she went from
Paris, she painted portraits of King Oscar and Queen Josephine. In 1851,
having received a government scholarship, she went to Munich, Bologna,
and Florence, and lived three years and a half in Rome, where she was
associated with Fogelberg, Overbeck, and Schnetz, and became a Catholic.
During this time she copied Raphael's "Transfiguration," now in the
Catholic church at Stockholm, and painted from life a portrait of Pius
IX. for the castle at Drottningholm. She also painted a "Roman Dancing
Girl" and a "Beggar Girl of Terracina."
<b>AHRENS, ELLEN WETHERALD.</b> Second Toppan prize, Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts. Second prize and silver medal, Carnegie Institute,
Pittsburg, 1902. Member of the Pennsylvania Academy, the Plastic Club,
and the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters. Born in Baltimore.
Studied at Boston Museum of Fine Arts under Grundmann, Champney, and
Stone; Pennsylvania Academy under Thomas Eakins; Drexel Institute under
Howard Pyle.
Many of her portraits are in private hands. That called "Sewing," a prize
picture, will be in the St. Louis Exhibition. Her portrait of Mr. Ellwood
Johnson is in the Pennsylvania Academy. That of Mary Ballard--a
miniature--was solicited for exhibition by the Copley Society, Boston.
Miss Ahrens is also favorably known as a designer for stained-glass
windows.