grows finer and her design or modelling stronger. At Vienna, 1890, it was
said that her picture of the "Bauernhofe" was, by its excellent color, a
disadvantage to the pictures near it, and the shore motive in "Abbazia"
was full of artistic charm. At Vienna, 1893, she exhibited a cycle, "The
Months," which bore witness to her admirable mastery of her art.
Among her works are some excellent Venetian subjects: "On the Rialto";
"Morning on the Shore"; and "In Venice."
<b>WOLFF, BETTY.</b> Honorable mention, Berlin, 1890. Member of the
Association of Women Artists and Friends of Art; also of the German Art
Association. Born in Berlin, where she was a pupil of Karl Stauffer-Bern;
she also studied in Munich under Karl Marr.
Besides numerous portraits of children, in pastel, this artist has
painted portraits in oils of many well-known persons, among whom are
Prof. H. Steinthal, Prof. Albrecht Weber, and General von Zycklinski.
<b>WOLTERS, HENRIETTA</b>, family name Van Pee. Born in Amsterdam.
1692-1741. Pupil of her father, and later made a special study of
miniature under Christoffel le Blond. Her early work consisted largely in
copies from Van de Velde and Van Dyck. Her miniatures were so highly
esteemed that Peter the Great offered her a salary of six thousand
florins as his court painter; and Frederick William of Prussia invited
her to his court, but nothing could tempt her away from her home in
Amsterdam. She received four hundred florins for a single miniature, a
most unusual price in her time.
<b>WOOD, CAROLINE S.</b> Daughter of Honorable Horatio D. Wood, of St.
Louis. This sculptor has made unusual advances in her art, to which she
has seriously devoted herself less than four years. She has studied in
the Art School of Washington University, the Art Institute, Chicago, and
is now a student in the Art League, New York.
She has been commissioned by the State of Missouri to make a statue to
represent "The Spirit of the State of Missouri," for the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition.
[_No reply to circular_.]
<b>WOODBURY, MARCIA OAKES.</b> Prize at Boston Art Club; medals at
Mechanics' Association Exhibition, Atlanta and Nashville Expositions.
Member of the New York and Boston Water-Color Clubs. Born at South
Berwick, Maine. Pupil of Tommasso Juglaris, in Boston, and of Lasar, in
Paris.
Mrs. Woodbury paints in oils and water-colors; the latter are genre
scenes, and among them are several Dutch subjects. She has painted
children's portraits in oils. Her pictures are in private hands in
Boston, New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati. "The Smoker," and "Mother and
Daughter," a triptych, are two of her principal pictures.
<b>WOODWARD, DEWING.</b> Grand prize of the Academy Julian, 1894. Member of
Water-Color Club, Baltimore; Charcoal Club, Baltimore; L'Union des Femmes
Peintres et Sculpteurs de France. Born at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Pupil of Pennsylvania Academy a few months; in Paris, of Bouguereau,
Robert-Fleury, and Jules Lefebvre.
Her "Holland Family at Prayer," exhibited at the Paris Salon, 1893, and
"Jessica," belong to the Public Library in Williamsport; "Clam-Diggers
Coming Home--Cape Cod" was in the Venice Exhibition, 1903; one of her
pictures shows the "Julian Academy, Criticism Day."
She has painted many portraits, and her work has often been thought to
be that of a man, which idea is no doubt partly due to her choosing
subjects from the lives of working men. She is of the modern school of
colorists.
<b>WRIGHT, ETHEL.</b> This artist contributed annually to the exhibitions
of the London Academy from 1893 to 1900, as follows: In 1893 she
exhibited "Milly" and "Echo"; in 1894, "The Prodigal"; in 1895, a
water-color, "Lilies"; in 1896, "Rejected"; in 1897, a portrait of Mrs.
Laurence Phillips; in 1898, "The Song of Ages," reproduced in this book;
in 1899, a portrait of Mrs. Arthur Strauss; and in 1900, one of Miss
Vaughan.
[_No reply to circular_.]
<b>WRIGHT, MRS. PATIENCE.</b> Born at Bordentown, New Jersey, 1725, of a
Quaker family. When left a widow, with three children to care for, she
went to London, where she found a larger field for her art than she had
in the United States, where she had already made a good reputation as a
modeller in wax. By reason of this change of residence she has often been
called an English sculptress.
Although the imaginative and pictorial is not cultivated or even approved
by Quakers, Patience Lovell, while still a child, and before she had seen
works of art, was content only when supplied with dough, wax, or clay,
from which she made figures of men and women. Very early these figures
became portraits of the people she knew best, and in the circle of her
family and friends she was considered a genius.
Very soon after Mrs. Wright reached London she was fully employed. She
worked in wax, and her full-length portrait of Lord Chatham was placed in
Westminster Abbey, protected by a glass case. This attracted much
attention, and the London journals praised the artist. She made portraits
of the King and Queen, who, attracted by her brilliant conversation,
admitted her to an intimacy at Buckingham House, which could not then
have been accorded to an untitled English woman.
[Illustration: From a Copley Print.
THE SONG OF AGES
ETHEL WRIGHT]
Mrs. Wright made many portraits of distinguished people; but few, if any,
of these can now be seen, although it is said that some of them have been
carefully preserved by the families who possess them.
To Americans Mrs. Wright is interesting by reason of her patriotism,
which amounted to a passion. She is credited with having been an
important source of information to the American leaders in the time of
the Revolution. In this she was frank and courageous, making no secret of
her views. She even ventured to reprove George III. for his attitude
toward the Colonists, and by this boldness lost the royal favor.
She corresponded with Franklin, in Paris, and new appointments, or other
important movements in the British army, were speedily known to him.
Washington, when he knew that Mrs. Wright wished to make a bust of him,
replied in most flattering terms that he should think himself happy to
have his portrait made by her. Mrs. Wright very much desired to make
likenesses of those who signed the Treaty of Peace, and of those who had
taken a prominent part in making it. She wrote: "To shame the English
king, I would go to any trouble and expense, and add my mite to the
honor due to Adams, Jefferson, and others."
Though so essentially American as a woman, the best of her professional
life was passed in England, where she was liberally patronized and fully
appreciated. Dunlap calls her an extraordinary woman, and several writers
have mentioned her power of judging the character of her visitors, in
which she rarely made a mistake, and chose her friends with unusual
intelligence.
Her eldest daughter married in America, and was well known as a modeller
in wax in New York. Her younger daughter married the artist Hoppner, a
rival in portraiture of Stuart and Lawrence, while her son Joseph was a
portrait painter. His likeness of Washington was much admired.
<b>WULFRAAT, MARGARETTA.</b> Born at Arnheim. 1678-1741. Was a pupil of
Caspar Netscher of Heidelberg, whose little pictures are of fabulous
value. Although he was so excellent a painter he was proud of Margaretta,
whose pictures were much admired in her day. Her "Musical Conversation"
is in the Museum of Schwerin. Her "Cleopatra" and "Semiramis" are in the
Gallery at Amsterdam.
<b>YANDELL, ENID.</b> Special Designer's Medal, Chicago, 1893; silver
medal, Tennessee Exposition; Honorable Mention, Buffalo, 1901. Member of
National Sculpture Society; Municipal Art Society; National Arts Club,
all of New York. Born in Louisville, Kentucky. Graduate of Cincinnati Art
Academy. Pupil of Philip Martiny in New York, and in Paris of Frederick
McMonnies and Auguste Rodin.
The principal works of this artist are the Mayor Lewis monument at New
Haven, Connecticut; the Chancellor Garland Memorial, Vanderbilt
University, Nashville; Carrie Brown Memorial Fountain, Providence; Daniel
Boone and the Ruff Fountain, Louisville.
Richard Ladegast, in January, 1902, wrote a sketch of Miss Yandell's life
and works for the _Outlook_, in which he says that Miss Yandell was the
first woman to become a member of the National Sculpture Society. I quote
from his article as follows: "The most imposing product of Miss Yandell's
genius was the heroic figure of Athena, twenty-five feet in height, which
stood in front of the reproduction of the Parthenon at the Nashville
Exposition. This is the largest figure ever designed by a woman.
[Illustration: STATUE OF DANIEL BOONE
ENID YANDELL
Made for St. Louis Exposition]
"The most artistic was probably the little silver tankard which she did
for the Tiffany Company, a bit of modelling which involves the figures of
a fisher-boy and a mermaid. The figure of Athena is large and correct;
those of the fisher-boy and mermaid poetic and impassioned.... The boy
kisses the maid when the lid is lifted. He is always looking over the
edge, as if yearning for the fate that each new drinker who lifts the lid
forces upon him."
Of the Carrie Brown Memorial Fountain he says: "The design of the
fountain represents the struggle of life symbolized by a group of figures
which is intended to portray, according to Miss Yandell, not the struggle
for bare existence, but 'the attempt of the immortal soul within us to
free itself from the handicaps and entanglements of its earthly
environments. It is the development of character, the triumph of
intellectuality and spirituality I have striven to express.' Life is
symbolized by the figure of a woman, the soul by an angel, and the
earthly tendencies--duty, passion, and avarice--by male figures. Life is
represented as struggling to free herself from the gross earthly forms
that cling to her. The figure of Life shows a calm, placid strength, well
calculated to conquer in a struggle; and the modelling of her clinging
robes and the active muscle of the male figures is firm and life-like.
The mantle of truth flows from the shoulders of the angel, forming a
drapery for the whole group, and serving as a support for the basin, the
edges of which are ornamented with dolphins spouting water.
"The silhouette formed by the mass of the fountain is most interesting
and successful from all points of view. The lines of the composition are
large and dignified, especially noticeable in the modelling of the
individual figures, which is well studied and technically excellent."
At Buffalo, where this fountain was exhibited, it received honorable
mention.
Miss Yandell has been commissioned to execute a symbolical figure of
victory and a statue of Daniel Boone for the St. Louis Exposition.
<b>YKENS, LAURENCE CATHERINE.</b> Elected to the Guild of Antwerp in 1659.
Born in Antwerp. Pupil of her father, Jan Ykens. Flowers, fruits, and
insects were her favorite subjects, and were painted with rare delicacy.
Two of these pictures are in the Museo del Prado, at Madrid. They are a
"Festoon of Flowers and Fruits with a Medallion in the Centre, on which
is a Landscape"; and a "Garland of Flowers with a Similar Medallion."
<b>ZIESENSIS, MARGARETTA.</b> There were few women artists in the
Scandinavian countries in the early years of the eighteenth century.
Among them was Margaretta Ziesensis, a Danish lady, who painted a large
number of portraits and some historical subjects.
She was best known, however, for her miniature copies of the works of
famous artists. These pictures were much the same in effect as the
"picture-miniatures" now in vogue. Her copy of Correggio's Zingarella was
much admired, and was several times repeated.
SUPPLEMENT
Containing names previously omitted and additions. The asterisk (*)
denotes preceding mention of the artist.
*<b>BILDERS, MARIE VAN BOSSE.</b> This celebrated landscape painter became
an artist through her determination to be an artist rather than because
of any impelling natural force driving her to this career.
After patient and continuous toil, she felt that she was developing an
artistic impulse. The advice of Van de Sande-Bakhuyzen greatly encouraged
her, and the candid and friendly criticism of Bosboom inspired her with
the courage to exhibit her work in public.
In the summer of 1875, in Vorden, she met Johannes Bilders, under whose
direction she studied landscape painting. This master took great pains to
develop the originality of his pupil rather than to encourage her
adapting the manner of other artists. During her stay in Vorden she made
a distinct gain in the attainment of an individual style of painting.
After her return to her home at The Hague, Bilders established a studio
there and showed a still keener interest in his pupil. This artistic
friendship resulted in the marriage of the two artists, and in 1880 they
established themselves in Oosterbeck.
Here began the intimate study of the heath which so largely influenced
the best pictures by Frau Bilders. In the garden of the picturesque house
in which the two artists lived was an old barn, which became her studio,
where, early and late, in all sorts of weather, she devotedly observed
the effects later pictured on her canvases. At this time she executed one
of her best works, now in the collection of the Prince Regent of
Brunswick. It is thus described by a Dutch writer in Rooses' "Dutch
Painters of the Nineteenth Century":
"It represents a deep pool, overshadowed by old gnarled willows in their
autumnal foliage, their silvery trunks bending over, as if to see
themselves in the clear, still water. On the edge of the pool are flowers
and variegated grasses, the latter looking as if they wished to crowd out
the former--as if _they_ were in the right and the flowers in the wrong;
as if such bright-hued creatures had no business to eclipse their more
sombre tones; as if _they_ and _they_ alone were suited to this silent,
forsaken spot."
Johannes Bilders was fully twenty-five years older than his wife, and the
failure of both his physical and mental powers in his last days required
her absolute devotion to him. In spite of this, the garden studio was not
wholly forsaken, and nearly every day she accomplished something there.
After her husband's death she had a long illness. On her recovery she
returned to The Hague and took the studio which had been that of the
artist Mauve.
The life of the town was wearisome to her, but she found a compensation
in her re-union with her old friends, and with occasional visits to the
heath she passed most of her remaining years in the city.
Her favorite subjects were landscapes with birch and beech trees, and the
varying phases of the heath and of solitary and unfrequented scenes. Her
works are all in private collections. Among them are "The Forester's
Cottage," "Autumn in Doorwerth," "The Old Birch," and the "Old Oaks of
Wodan at Sunset."
<b>BOZNANSKA, OLGA.</b> Born in Cracow, where she was a pupil of Matejko.
Later, in Munich, she studied with Kricheldorf and Dürr. Her mother was a
French woman, and critics trace both Polish and French characteristics in
her work.
She paints portraits and genre subjects. She is skilful in seizing
salient characteristics, and her chief aim is to preserve the
individuality of her sitters and models. She skilfully manages the
side-lights, and by this means produces strong effects. After the first
exhibition of her pictures in Berlin, her "God-given talent" was several
times mentioned by the art critics.
At Munich she made a good impression by her pictures exhibited in 1893
and 1895; at the Exposition in Paris, 1889, her portrait and a study in
pastel were much admired and were generously praised in the art journals.
*<b>COX, LOUISE.</b> The picture by Mrs. Cox, reproduced in this book,
illustrates two lines in a poem by Austin Dobson, called "A Song of
Angiola in Heaven."
"Then set I lips to hers, and felt,--
Ah, God,--the hard pain fade and melt."
<b>DE MORGAN, EMILY.</b> Family name Pickering. When sixteen years old,
this artist entered the Slade School, and eighteen months later received
the Slade Scholarship, by which she was entitled to benefit for three
years. At the end of the first year, however, she resigned this privilege
because she did not wish to accept the conditions of the gift.
As a child she had loved the pictures of the precursors of Raphael, in
the National Gallery, and her first exhibited picture, "Ariadne in
Naxos," hung in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, proved how closely she had
studied these old masters. At this time she knew nothing of the English
Pre-Raphaelites; later, however, she became one of the most worthy
followers of Burne-Jones.
About the time that she left the Slade School one of her uncles took up
his residence in Florence, where she has spent several winters in work
and study.
One of her most important pictures is inscribed with these lines:
"Dark is the valley of shadows,
Empty the power of kings;
Blind is the favor of fortune,
Hungry the caverns of death.
Dim is the light from beyond,
Unanswered the riddle of life."
This pessimistic view of the world is illustrated by the figure of a
king, who, in the midst of ruins, places his foot upon the prostrate form
of a chained victim; Happiness, with bandaged eyes, scatters treasures
into the bottomless pit, a desperate youth being about to plunge into its
depths; a kneeling woman, praying for light, sees brilliant figures
soaring upward, their beauty charming roses from the thorn bushes.
Other pictures by this artist remind one of the works of Botticelli. Of
her "Ithuriel" W. S. Sparrow wrote: "It may be thought that this Ithuriel
is too mild--too much like Shakespeare's Oberon--to be in keeping with
the terrific tragedy depicted in the first four books of the 'Paradise
Lost.' Eve, too, lovely as she is, seems to bear no likelihood of
resemblance to Milton's superb mother of mankind. But the picture has a
sweet, serene grace which should make us glad to accept from Mrs. De
Morgan another Eve and another Ithuriel, true children of her own fancy."
The myth of "Boreas and Orithyia," though faulty perhaps in technique, is
good in conception and arrangement.
Mrs. De Morgan has produced some impressive works in sculpture. Among
these are "Medusa," a bronze bust; and a "Mater Dolorosa," in
terra-cotta.
<b>DESCHLY, IRENE.</b> Born in Bucharest, the daughter of a Roumanian
advocate. She gave such promise as an artist that a government stipend
was bestowed on her, which enabled her to study in Paris, where she was a
pupil of Laurens and E. Carrière.
Her work is tinged with the melancholy and intensity of her
nature--perhaps of her race; yet there is something in her grim
conceptions, or rather in her treatment of them, that demands attention
and compels admiration. Even in her "Sweet Dream," which represents the
half-nude figure of a young girl holding a rose in her hand, there is
more sadness than joy, as though she said, "It is only a dream, after
all." "Chanson," exhibited at the Paris Exposition, 1900, displays
something of the same quality.
<b>ERISTOW-KASAK, PRINCESS MARIE.</b> Among the many Russian portraits in
the Paris Exposition, 1900, two, the work of this pupil of Michel de
Zichys, stood out in splendid contrast with the crass realism or the weak
idealism of the greater number. One was a half-length portrait of the
laughing Mme. Paquin; full of life and movement were the pose of the
figure, the fall of the draperies, and the tilt of the expressive fan.
The other was the spirited portrait of Baron von Friedericks, a happy
combination of cavalier and soldier in its manly strength.
When but sixteen years old, the Princess Marie roused the admiration of
the Russian court by her portrait of the Grand Duke Sergius. This led to
her painting portraits of various members of the royal family while she
was still a pupil of De Zichys.
After her marriage she established herself in Paris, where she endeavors
to preserve an incognito as an artist in order to work in the most quiet
and devoted manner.
<b>GOEBELER, ELISE.</b> This artist studied drawing under Steffeck and
color under Dürr, in Munich. Connoisseurs in art welcome the name of
Elise Goebeler in exhibitions, and recall the remarkable violet-blue
lights and the hazy atmosphere in her works, out of which emerges some
charming, graceful figure; perhaps a young girl on whose white shoulders
the light falls, while a shadow half conceals the rest of the form.
These dreamy, Madonna-like beauties are the result of the most severe and
protracted study. Without the remarkable excellence of their technique
and the unusual quality of their color they would be the veriest
sentimentalities; but wherever they are seen they command admiration.
Her "Cinderella," exhibited in Berlin in 1880, was bought by the Emperor;
another picture of the same subject, but quite different in effect, was
exhibited in Munich in 1883. In the same year, in Berlin, "A Young Girl
with Pussy-Willows" and "A Neapolitan Water Carrier" were seen. In 1887,
in Berlin, her "Vanitas, Vanitatum Vanitas" and the "Net-Mender" were
exhibited, and ten years later "Cheerfulness" was highly commended. At
Munich, in 1899, her picture, called "Elegie," attracted much attention
and received unusual praise.
*<b>HERBELIN, JEANE MATHILDE.</b> This miniaturist has recently died at the
age of eighty-four. In addition to the medals and honors she had received
previous to 1855, it was that year decided that her works should be
admitted to the Salon without examination. She was a daughter of General
Habert, and a niece of Belloc, under whom she studied her art while still
very young. Her early ambition was to paint large pictures, but Delacroix
persuaded her to devote herself to miniature painting, in which art she
has been called "the best in the world."
She adopted the full tones and broad style to which she was accustomed in
her larger works, and revolutionized the method of miniature painting in
which stippling had prevailed. When eighteen years old, she went to
Italy, where she made copies from the masters and did much original work
as well.
Among her best portraits are those of the Baroness Habert, Guizot,
Rossini, Isabey, Robert-Fleury, M. and Mme. de Torigny, Count de Zeppel,
and her own portrait. Besides portraits, she painted a picture called "A
Child Holding a Rose," "Souvenir," and "A Young Girl Playing with a Fan."
<b>JOHNSON, ADELAIDE.</b> Born at Plymouth, Illinois. This sculptor first
studied in the St. Louis School of Design, and in 1877, at the St. Louis
Exposition, received two prizes for the excellence of her wood carving.
During several years she devoted herself to interior decoration,
designing not only the form and color to be used in decorating edifices,
but also the furniture and all necessary details to complete them and
make them ready for use.
Being desirous of becoming a sculptor, Miss Johnson went, in 1883, to
England, Germany, and Italy. In Rome she was a pupil of Monteverde and of
Altini, who was then president of the Academy of St. Luke.
After two years she returned to America and began her professional career
in Chicago, where she remained but a year before establishing herself in
Washington. Her best-known works are portrait busts, which are numerous.
Many of these have been seen in the Corcoran Art Gallery and in other
public exhibitions.
Of her bust of Susan B. Anthony, the sculptor, Lorado Taft, said: "Your
bust of Miss Anthony is better than mine. I tried to make her real, but
you have made her not only real, but ideal." Among her portraits are
those of General Logan, Dr. H. W. Thomas, Isabella Beecher Hooker,
William Tebb, Esq., of London, etc.
<b>KOEGEL, LINDA.</b> Born at The Hague. A pupil of Stauffer-Bern in Berlin
and of Herterich in Munich. Her attachment to impressionism leads this
artist to many experiments in color--or, as one critic wrote, "to play
with color."