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The Art and Life Library
Edited by
WALTER SHAW SPARROW.
VOLUME I.
The British Home of To-day
A BOOK OF MODERN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE AND THE APPLIED ARTS.
(_Published June, 1904. Out of Print_).
VOLUME II.
The Gospels in Art
THE LIFE OF CHRIST BY GREAT PAINTERS FROM FRA ANGELICO TO HOLMAN
HUNT.
(_Published November, 1904_).
VOLUME III.
Women Painters of the World
FROM THE TIME OF CATERINA VIGRI (1413-1463) TO ROSA BONHEUR AND
THE PRESENT DAY.
DEDICATED TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ALEXANDRA.
(Published March, 1905).
Hodder & Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row, London.
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1901
"JOY AND THE LABOURER." REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN
THE COLLECTION OF W. A. CADBURY, ESQ.
Mrs. Mary Young Hunter, Painter]
Women Painters of the World _from the time of Caterina Vigri
1413-1463 to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day_
_Edited by Walter Shaw Sparrow_
The Art and Life Library
H&S
1905
Hodder & Stoughton
27 Paternoster Row-London
DEDICATED BY GRACIOVS PERMISSION
TO
HER MAJESTY QVEEN ALEXANDRA
IN THIS YEAR OF OVR LORD ONE THOVSAND NINE HVNDRED & FIVE
Printed by
Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd.
The Country Press, Bradford.
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1874
"MISSED!" REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF CHARLES CHESTON, ESQ.,
FROM: THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR DATED 1874, THE YEAR IN WHICH
THE PAINTER'S FAMOUS "ROLL-CALL" WAS PURCHASED BY QUEEN VICTORIA
AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Lady Elizabeth Butler, Painter]
PREFACE
What is genius? Is it not both masculine and feminine? Are not some of
its qualities instinct with manhood, while others delight us with the
most winning graces of a perfect womanhood? Does not genius make its
appeal as a single creative agent with a two-fold sex?
But if genius has its Mirandas and its Regans no less than its
infinite types of men, ranging from Prospero and Ferdinand to Caliban
and Trinculo, its union of the sexes does not remain always at peace
within the sphere of art. Sometimes, in the genius of men, the female
characteristics gain mastery over the male qualities; at other times
the male attributes of woman's genius win empire and precedence over
the female; and whenever these things happen, the works produced in
art soon recede from the world's sympathies, losing all their first
freshness. They may guide us, perhaps, as finger-posts in history,
pointing the way to some movement of interest; but their first
popularity as art is never renewed. Style is the man in the genius of
men, style is the woman in the genius of the fair. No male artist,
however gifted he may be, will ever be able to experience all the
emotional life to which women are subject; and no woman of abilities,
how much soever she may try, will be able to borrow from men anything
so invaluable to art as her own intuition and the prescient tenderness
and grace of her nursery-nature. Thus, then, the bisexuality of genius
has limits in art, and those limits should be determined by a worker's
sex.
As examples in art of complete womanliness, mention may be made of two
exquisite portraits by Madame Le Brun, in which, whilst representing
her little daughter and herself, the painter discloses the inner
essence and the life of maternal love, and discloses them with a
caressing playfulness of passion unattainable by men, and sometimes
unappreciated by men. Here, indeed, we have the poetry of universal
motherhood, common to the household hearts of good women the wide
world over. Such pictures may not be the highest form of painting, but
highest they are in their own realm of human emotion; and they recall
to one's memory that truth in which Napoleon the Great ranked the
gentler sex as the most potent of all creative artists. "The future
destiny of children," said he, "is always the work of mothers."
But some persons may answer: "Yes, but the achievements of women
painters have been second-rate. Where is there a woman artist equal to
any man among the greatest masters?" Persons who do not think are
constantly asking that question. The greatest geniuses were all
hustled and moulded into shape by the greatest epochs of ambition in
the lives of nations, just as the mountains of Switzerland were thrown
up to their towering heights by tremendous forces underground; and, as
the Alps do not repeat themselves, here and there, for the pleasure of
tourists, so the greatest geniuses do not reappear for the pleasure of
critics or of theorists. And this is not all. Why compare the
differing genius of women and men? There is room in the garden of art
for flowers of every kind and for butterflies and birds of every
species; and why should anyone complain because a daisy is not a rose,
or because nightingales and thrushes, despite their family
resemblance, have voices of their own, dissimilar in compass and in
quality?
The present book, then, is a history of woman's garden in the art of
painting, and its three hundred pictures show what she has grown in
her garden during the last four centuries and a half. The Editor has
tried to free his mind of every bias, so that this book, within the
limits of 332 pages, might be as varied as the subject. The choice of
pictures has not been easy, and a few disappointments have attended
the many communications with the owners of copyrights; but only two
invited artists have declined to contribute. It is not often that so
much willing and generous help has come to an Editor from so many
countries; and it is with gratitude that I acknowledge the assistance
received from the contributors of to-day. Seven pictures are
reproduced in colour-facsimile, thanks to the courtesy of the
following artists and collectors: Mrs. Allingham, Miss Ann Macbeth,
Mr. James Orrock, R.I., Mr. W A. Cadbury, Mr. Charles Cheston, Mr.
Klackner, and Mr. Charles Dowdeswell.
The Dedication Page, the Initials Letters, the End Papers, are all
designs by Miss Ethel Larcombe, while the Title Page and the Cover are
the work of Mr. David Veazey. The silhouettes by Mlle. Nelly
Bodenheim, used as tail-pieces, are published by permission of S. L.
van Looy, Amsterdam.
This volume being the first illustrated history of the Women Painters
of the World, Her Majesty Queen Alexandra has honoured it by
graciously accepting the Dedication; and in this encouraging act is
revealed the untiring interest and solicitude with which Her Majesty
has ever followed the progress of women's work.
THE EDITOR.
[Illustration: SILHOUETTE BY NELLY BODENHEIM, HOLLAND.]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, CONTEMPORARY
AN ENGLISH HEBE.
AFTER THE ORIGINAL DRAWING
H.R.H. The Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll]
CONTENTS
Preface: "ON THE SCOPE OF THE PRESENT VOLUME." By the Editor.
Chapter I: "WOMEN PAINTERS IN ITALY SINCE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY."
By Walter Shaw Sparrow