FACSIMILE PLATES IN COLOUR
1. Mrs. Mary Young Hunter. "JOY AND THE LABOURER" Frontispiece
PAGE
2. Lady Elizabeth Butler (Elizabeth Thompson). "MISSED!" 9
3. H.I.M. The Empress Frederick of Germany (1840-1891). "THE
AKROPOLIS, ATHENS: FROM THE BALCONY OF THE CROWN PRINCE'S
HOUSE" 56
4. Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, A.R.W.S. "YOUTH AND THE
LADY" 73
5. Miss Ann Macbeth. "ELSPETH" 97
6. Mrs. Helen Allingham, R.W.S. "A COTTAGE NEAR CROCKEN HILL" 109
7. Helen Hyde. "DAY DREAMS" 145
REMBRANDT PHOTOGRAVURES
1. Rosalba Carriera. "PORTRAIT OF A LADY UNKNOWN" 20
2. Madame Vigee Le Brun. "HERSELF AND HER DAUGHTER" 166
3. Madame Adele Romany. "PORTRAIT OF GAETANO APOLLINO
BALDASSARE VESTRIS, DANCER" 171
4. Mademoiselle Marie Amelie Cogniet. "PORTRAIT OF MADAME
ADELAIDE D'ORLEANS" 189
5. Rosa Bonheur. "SHEPHERD WATCHING HIS SHEEP" 205
6. Francine Charderon. "SLEEP" 229
MONOCHROME PLATES
1. H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.
"AN ENGLISH HEBE." 13
2. Sophonisba Anguisciola. "HER THREE SISTERS PLAYING AT CHESS" 25
3. Artemisia Gentileschi. "MARY MAGDALENE" 31
4. Rosalba Carriera. "CHARITY AND JUSTICE" 37
5. Elisabetta Sirani. "THE DREAM OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA" 43
6. Signorina Elisa Koch. "THE LITTLE SISTER" 49
7. Catharine Read. "THE LADY GEORGIANA SPENCER" 61
8. Angelica Kauffman, R.A. "THE SIBYL" 67
9. Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S. "THE FISHER WIFE" 85
10. Mrs. William De Morgan (Evelyn Pickering). "FLORA" 91
11. Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, A.R.W.S. "TO-DAY FOR ME" 103
12. Miss Cecilia Beaux. "MOTHER AND CHILD" 121
13. Miss Kate Greenaway. "A. FOR APPLE PIE: E. EAT IT" 127
14. Mrs. Annie L. Swynnerton. "THE SENSE OF SIGHT" 133
15. Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt, R.B.A. "LOVE LOCKED OUT" 139
16. Miss Cornelia W. Conant. "THE END OF THE STORY" 151
17. Mary Cassatt. "BABY'S TOILETTE" 157
18. Helen Hyde. "THE BAMBOO FENCE" 163
19. Madame Vigee Le Brun. "HERSELF AND HER DAUGHTER" 177
20. Berthe Morisot. "PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN SEATED" 211
21. Madame Jacqueline Comerre-Paton. "MISTLETOE" 217
22. Madame Eva Gonzales. "PORTRAIT OF A LADY" 223
23. Madame Fanny Fleury. "THE PATHWAY TO THE VILLAGE CHURCH" 235
24. Madame Vallet-Bisson. "THE DEPARTURE" 241
25. Mlle. Consuelo Fould. "WILL YOU BUY?" 247
26. Judith Leyster. "THE MERRY YOUNG MAN" 257
27. Mevrouw Bilders van Bosse. "LANDSCAPE NEAR OOSTERBEEK" 267
28. Mlle. Therese Schwartze. "THE CHILDREN OF MR. A. MAY,
AMSTERDAM" 273
39. Madame Henriette Ronner. "THE LAST MOVE" 279
30. Mlle. Marie Bashkirtseff. "A MEETING" 293
31. Mlle. Ottilie Roederstein. "LE MOIS DE MARIE" 311
32. Antonia de Banuelos. "THE LITTLE FISHERS" 321
33. Mary Cassatt. "CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN" 327
34. Mary Cassatt. "MOTHER AND TWO CHILDREN" 327
DUPLEX PLATES
1. Mrs. Marianne Stokes. "THE QUEEN AND THE PAGE." Duplex Plate 79
2. Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch, R.B.A. "LABOURERS OF THE NIGHT."
Duplex Plate 115
3. Madame Benoits. "MARIE PAULINE, PRINCESSE BORGHESE."
Duplex Plate 183
4. Rosa Bonheur. "STUDY OF A BULL." Duplex Plate 195
Owing to various reasons, the work of several well-known painters
could not be obtained until this book had passed through the press,
and a supplement of pictures has therefore been placed between page
324 and page 325. It includes work by Lady Alma-Tadema, Mrs. Seymour
Lucas, Mrs. Marrable, Miss Maud Earl, Miss Julia B. Folkard, Miss
Maude Goodman, Miss Flora M. Reid, Miss Blanche Jenkins, and Madame
Arsene Darmesteter.
It is hoped that the Women Painters of To-day may be studied again in
a second volume. In the present book, dealing with 450 years of work,
the living painters could not be fully represented, for there are
thousands of ladies who now win a place in the art exhibitions of
Europe and America.
WOMEN PAINTERS REPRESENTED
PAGE
Abbema, Mlle. Louise 237
Abran, Madame 243
Allingham, Mrs. Helen, R.W.S. 109, 137
Alma-Tadema, Miss Anna 156
Anderson, Mrs. Sophie 105
Angell, Mrs. Coleman 102
Anguisciola, Sophonisba 25, 36, 39
Angus, Christine 64
Art, Mlle. Berthe 276
Bakhuyzen, Mme. C. J. van de Sande 266
Banuelos, Antonia de 320, 321
Barton, Miss Rose, A.R.W.S. 143
Bashkirtseff, Mlle. Marie 293, 315
Bauck, Jeanna 300, 301
Bauerle, Miss A., A.R.E. 132
Beale, Mary 81
Beauclerk, Lady Diana 82
Beaux, Miss Cecilia 121, 162
Benoits, Madame 183
Bilders van Bosse, Mme. 267, 269, 272
Bisschop-Robertson, Mme. Suse 278
Blatherwick, Lily (Mrs. A. S. Hartrick) 155
Blau-Lang, Frau Tina 306, 308
Bodenheim, Mlle. Nelly 12, 72, 292, 332
Bonheur, Rosa 195, 205, 209, 210, 214, 215
Bouillier, Mlle. 194
Bourbon, de, Infante Paz 318, 320
Bovi, Madame 90
Boznauska, de, Olga 316
Breslau, Mlle. Louise 304, 314
Brickdale, Miss E. Fortescue, A.R.W.S. 73, 103, 114,
126, 141, 142
Brockmann, Dona Elena 319
Brownscombe, Miss Jennie 161
Butler, Lady Elizabeth 9, 154
Byrne, Anne Frances 94
Cameron, Miss Katharine 124
Cameron, Miss Margaret 131, 155
Capet, Marie Gabrielle 197
Carpenter, Mrs. Margaret 96, 100
Carpentier, Madeleine 244
Carriera, Rosalba 20, 37, 48, 51
Cassatt, Miss Mary 157, 327
Cazin, Madame Marie 227, 239
Charderon, Francine 229
Chase, Miss Marian, R.I. 130
Chatillon, de, Mme. Laure 219
Chaudet, Elisabeth 202
Cheviot, Miss Lilian 143
Claudie, Mlle. 252
Cogniet, Mlle. Marie Amelie 189
Colin-Libour, Madame 325
Comerre-Paton, Mme. J. 217
Conant, Miss Cornelia 151
Cool, de, Mme. Delphine 232
Coomans, Mlle. Diana 228
Cosway, Maria 96
Curran, Miss A. 90
Danse, Mlle. Louise 278
Davids, Fraeulein 300
Davin, Madame 207
Dealy, Jane M. (Mrs. Lewis) 144
Demont-Breton, Madame 226, 233
De Morgan, Mrs. Evelyn 91, 117, 123
Destree-Danse, Madame 282
Dieksee, Miss Margaret Isabel 112
Dolci, Agnese 47
Dubos, Mlle. Angele 216
Dubourg, Mme. Victoria 240
Dufau, Mlle. 231, 240, 243
Duffield, Mrs. William 118
Ellenrieder, Anna Marie 298
Empress Frederick of Germany 56
Enault, Madame Alix 225
Fanner, Miss Alice 135, 156
Fanshawe, Catherine Maria 89
Fautin-Latour, Mme. (Victoria Dubourg) 240
Fichel, Mme. Jeanne 216
Filleul, Madame 186, 187
Fleury, Mme. Fanny 235
Fontana, Lavinia 39, 40, 41
Forbes, Mrs. Stanhope 85, 147, 149
Fould, Mlle. Achille 250
Fould, Mlle. Consuelo 247
Frampton, Mrs. George 136
Gardner, Elizabeth 234, 238
Gentileschi, Artemisia 31, 42, 45
Ghisi, Diana 39
Gilsoni-Hoppe, Madame 266
Godefroid, Mlle. Marie E. 203
Gonzales, Eva 223, 231
Gow, Miss Mary L., R.I. 107
Granby, Marchioness of 142
Greenaway, Miss Kate 119, 127
Gutti, Rosina M. 53
Guyard, Madame 185, 188
Hammond, Miss G. Demain, R.I. 135
Hart, Miss Emily 113
Havers, Miss Alice 108
Heitland, Miss Ivy 107
Hemessen, Catharina van 263
Heming, Mrs. Matilda 95
Herford, Mrs. John 95
Herland, Mlle. E. 249
Hilda, Mlle. E. 245
Hitz, Dora 302, 303
Hobson, Miss A. M., R.I. 118
Hogendorp, Baronne van 266
Holroyd, Lady 150
Hotham, Amelia 88
Houdon, Mlle. M. J. A. 202
Houssay, Mlle. Josephine 251
Houten, Mme. Mesdag van 269
Houten, Mlle. Barbara van 270, 275
How, Miss Beatrice 142, 148
Hunter, Mrs. Mary V., Frontispiece, 126, 130
Hyde, Miss Helen 145, 163
Jensen, Frau Marie 303
Jopling, Mrs. Louisa, R.B.A. 120
Kauffman, Angelica, R.A. 67, 83, 87
Kemp-Welch, Miss L. E., R.B.A. 115, 125
King, Miss Jessie M. 159
Koch, Elisa 49
Kollwitz, Fraeulein Kaethe 302
Laucota, Fraeulein Herstine 307
Larcombe, Miss Ethel, Dedication Page,
End-papers,
Initial Letters
Le Brun, Madame Vigee 166, 177, 191, 192, 193,
198, 200, 201, 204
Leleux, Madame Armand 220
Le Roy, Madame 252
Lescot, Madame Haudebourt 208
Leyster, Judith 257, 264
Longhi, Barbara 41
Louise, H.R.H. Princess, Duchess of Argyll 13
Lucas-Robiquet, Mme. 251
Macbeth, Miss Ann 97
Macdonald, Miss Biddie 123
Macgregor, Miss Jessie 148
Marcotte, Mlle. E. 272
Martineau, Miss Edith, A.R.W.S. 111
Maupeou, Caroline von 299
Mayer, Constance 199
Mee, Mrs. Anne 93
Meen, Mrs. Margaret 94
Merian, Maria S. 295, 296
Merritt, Mrs. Anna Lea, R.B.A. 139
Meunier, Mlle. Georgette 282
Morin, Eulalie 187
Morisot, Berthe 211, 213
Moser, Mary, R.A. 94
Nicolas, Mlle. Marie 222
Normand, Mrs. (Henrietta Rae) 153
Offor, B. (Mrs. F. Littler) 160
Oppenheim, Mlle. A. 246
Parlaghy, Frau Vilms 316
Paymal-Amouroux, Mme. 232
Petiet, Mlle. Marie 219
Phillott, Miss Constance, A.R.W.S. 138
Prestel, Maria C. 297
Real del Sarte, Mme. 351
Ragnoni, Barbara 35
Read, Catharine 61, 84
Reis, Maria G. Silva 301
Robertson, Mrs. J. 93
Roederstein, Mlle. Ottilie 305, 311
Romani, Juana 54
Romany, Mme. Adele 171
Rongier, Mlle., Jeanne 320
Ronner, Mme. Henriette 279, 281
Rothschild, de, Baroness Lambert 277
Rude, Mme. Sophie 207
Ruysch, Rachel 265
Salanson, Mlle. Eugenie 228
Salles-Wagner, Adelaide 299
Sawyer, Miss Amy 159
Schjerfbeck, Helene 310, 313
Schurman, Anna Maria 296
Schneider, Mme. Felicie 222
Schwartze, Therese 270, 271, 273, 275
Sindici, Dona Stuart 317
Sirani, Elisabetta 43, 46
Sister A, Sienese Nun 34, 35
Sister B, Sienese Nun 34
Smythe, Miss Minnie, A.R.W.S. 150
Sonrel, Elisabeth 237
Spencer, Lavinia, Countess 90
Staples, Mrs. (M. E. Edwards) 120
Starr, Louisa (Mme. Canziana) 106
Stokes, Mrs. Marianne 79, 129
Strong, Mrs. Elizabeth 113
Subleyras, Maria Tibaldi 52
Swon, Mrs. J. M. 159
Swynnerton, Mrs. A. L. 133
Tavernier, de, Mme. E. 227
Templetown, Viscountess 94
Thesleff, Ellen 314
Valory, de, Mme. Caroline 192
Vallet-Bisson, Mme. 241
Vanteuil, de, Mlle. 185
Vigri, Caterina 33
Waterford, Louisa Lady 99, 101
Waternau, Mlle. Hermine 221
Watson, Caroline 89
Wentworth, Mrs. Cecilia 160
Wesmael, Mlle. E. 283
White, Miss Florence 124
Wiik, Maria 309, 313
Wolfthorn, Frau Julie 304
Wytsman, Mme. Juliette 284
Youngman, Miss A. M., R.I. 118, 119
Zappi, Lavinia Fontana 39, 40, 41
Zillhardt, Mlle. Jenny 221
[Illustration: VENETIAN SCHOOL. 1675-1757
Portrait of a Lady unknown. After the pastel in the Musee de
Chantilly, from a Photograph
by Braun, Clement & Co., Paris
Rosalba Carriera, Pastellist
1675-1757]
Women Painters in Italy since the Fifteenth Century
By Walter Shaw Sparrow
Older than the authenticated history of Greek art is a tradition that
connects a girl's name with the discovery of a great craft, the craft
of modelling portraits in relief. Kora, known as the virgin of
Corinth, and daughter of a potter named Butades, sat one evening with
her betrothed in her father's house; a torch burned, a fire of wood
bickered in a brasier, throwing on the wall in shadow a clear
silhouette of the young man's profile; and Kora, moved by a sudden
impulse, took from the hearth a charred piece of wood and outlined the
shadow. When the girl's father, Butades, saw the sketch which she had
made, he filled in the outline with his potters' clay, forming the
first medallion.
It is a pretty, chivalrous tradition, and it recalls to one's memory
the fact that the ancient Greeks had really some women artists of
note, like Aristarete, daughter and pupil of Nearchus, celebrated for
her picture of Aesculapius; or like Anaxandra (about B.C. 228),
daughter of the painter Nealces, or like Helena, who painted the
battle of Issus, about B.C. 333.
Passing from Greece to ancient Rome, we find only one woman painter,
Lala by name, and she was a Greek by birth and education. Lala lived
and laboured in the first century before the birth of Christ. She went
to Rome during the last days of the republic, and won for herself a
great reputation by her miniature portraits of ladies.
As the early Christians turned away from all luxury and adornment, the
influence of Christ's life was very slow in gaining its benign
ascendency in the arts; but among the civilisations which were founded
on the ruins of Rome's decline and fall, there were some women who
still deserve to be remembered for their patronage of art.
Amalasontha, daughter of Theodoric the Great, Theodelinda, Queen of
the Lombards, Hroswitha, in her convent at Gandershein, and Ava, the
first German poetess, these ladies, and many others, made colonising
names, names that visited distant lands and gave ambition to other
women.
Briefly, the Renaissance was heralded by a long, troubled dawn; but it
came at last, and its effects on the destinies of women were immediate
and far-reaching. In Italy, one by one, the Universities were opened
to the fair, that of Bologna leading the way in the 13th century, when
Betisia Gozzadini studied there with success, dressed as a boy, like
Plato's pupil, Axiothea. And a line of girl graduates connects Betisia
Gozzadini with the women lecturers who became so famous at Bologna in
the 18th century: Anna Manzolini, Laura Bassi, Clotilde Tambroni,
Maria Agnesi, and Maria Dalle-Donne.
It is not easy to explain why the Italian towns and universities gave
so much encouragement to the higher aspirations of girls. In poetry,
in art, in learning, that encouragement was equally remarkable, and I
am tempted to assign its origin to the martial temper of the Middle
Ages, which drew many young men from the universities to take part in
the exercises of the tilt-yard or in the perils of the battlefield,
leaving the fields of learning in need of zealous labourers. Women, on
the other hand, exposed their hearts, but not their lives, to the
hazards of duels, tournaments and wars; they lived longer than men, as
a rule, and hence it was worth while to encourage publicly those gifts
of the female mind and spirit which had long been cultivated privately
for the benefit of peaceful nunneries.
Still, whatever the origin of it may have been, the pride taken by the
Italians in their gifted women is among the most important facts in
the history of their Renaissance. But for that pride, the scores of
ladies who became noted in the arts would have remained unknown in
their homes, and the story of those times would lack in its social
life a counterpart of that radiant chivalry that cast so much
tenderness and sanctity about the Motherhood of Mary and the Infancy
of Jesus Christ.
As this chapter is nothing more than a brief introduction to the study
of a very important subject, I can say only a few words about the
different groups of painters into which the women artists of Italy are
divided, beginning with the early nuns, whose art was not so much a
craft as a confession of faith.
Caterina Vigri was the earliest of these nuns, and the picture by
which she is represented on page 33, "St. Ursula and her Maidens," was
painted in the year 1456. Not only is it typical of the young
Bolognese school, but, despite the primitiveness of the drawing, it
has two qualities in which the swift temperaments of women, so
truth-telling in their emotions, commonly manifest themselves in art:
the first is a certain naturalness of gesture and of pose; the second
is an evident wish to impart life and liveliness to the faces, even
although that liveliness and life may not accord with the subject in
its higher spiritual significance. It is this natural wish of women to
be homely and attractive that so frequently brings their art nearer to
the people's sympathies than the work done by men; and if we study the
four illustrations on pages 34 and 35, representing pictures by the
Sienese nuns of Santa Marta, we shall see how motherly in tenderness
was the feminine ideal of Christ's infancy. I can gain no information
about Barbara Ragnoni and the two other sister nuns, whose names have
passed into Time's limbo of forgotten things, and whom I have ventured
to describe as Sister A. and Sister B. They were true artists, each
one having a sweet graciousness of her own, playful, yet devout and
reverent, devotional but not austere. In these pictures the maternal
instincts are at play; the painters are so happy in their subject that
their whole womanhood responds to it, making it a holy experience of
their own glad hearts. There is much to admire also in the way in
which the figures are grouped and co-ordinated; and how charming is
that glympse of country painted by Barbara Ragnoni in her "Adoration
of the Shepherds."
These were not the only gifted and gracious nuns in the early history
of Italian art. There was Plautilla Nelli, who formed her style on
that of Fra Bartolommeo; she became prioress of a convent in Florence,
the convent of St. Catherine, and died in 1588, aged sixty-five.
Barbara Longhi of Ravenna, another painter of the same period, was not
a nun, but I mention her now in order that attention may be drawn to a
painter having a genuine sympathy and style (see page 41).
We pass on to a little bevy of emigrants, women painters who visited
foreign courts where they met with great successes. Sophonisba
Anguisciola, born of a noble family in Cremona, was enriched by Philip
II. of Spain; Artemesia Gentileschi came to London with her father and
found a patron in Charles I.; Maria La Caffa (17th century), a flower
painter, came upon her Maecenas in the Court of Tyrol; it was in German
Courts that Isabella del Pozzo (17th century), like Felicita Sartori
(18th century), plucked bay leaves and laurels; and Violanta Beatrice
Siries, after making for herself a name in Paris, returned home to
Florence and painted many famous persons of the 18th century. Then we
have Rosalba Carriera, whose career ended in blindness and loss of
reason, and whose whole life is a touching story. As a child she made
Point of Venice lace; at the age of fourteen or fifteen she painted
snuff boxes with flowers and pretty faces; then miniatures of
well-known persons kept her brushes busy; but this minute art tried
her eyes so seriously that Rosalba adopted pastels instead, and soon
became the most famous pastellist of her period. She journeyed pretty
well all over the Continent, winning an extraordinary success wherever
she went, as well as a place in all the Academies of note, from the
Clementina at Bologna to the Royal Academy at Paris. Rosalba Carriera
arrived in Paris in April 1720; she kept a diary of her experiences,
and students of French history should read it in the edition annotated
by Alfred Sensier. But here we are concerned with the art alone of
Rosalba Carriera, an art rich in colour, swift and nervous in drawing,
full of character, and modelled always with vigour and with ease.
Returning now to an earlier traveller, Sophonisba Anguisciola, we meet
with another portraitist of real merit, more self-contained than
Rosalba, less impetuous, but fresh, witty, sincere and charming. It is
probable that she was born in 1533. After studying for some time at
Cremona, under Bernardino Campi, Sophonisba Anguisciola began to make
fun of the little girls of the period. Vasari set the greatest store
by one of these satirical sketches, representing a boy with a lobster
clawed to his finger, and a small girl laughing at his nimbleness. The
subject of another skit was an old woman studying the Alphabet, much
to the amusement of a baby girl.
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF CREMONA, XVI CENTURY
THREE SISTERS OF SOPHONISBA ANGUISCIOLA PLAYING AT CHESS. FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE RACZYNSKI
COLLECTION. VASARI SAW THIS PICTURE AND SAID THAT "THE FIGURES
WANTED ONLY VOICE TO BE ALIVE."
Sophonisba Anguisciola or Angussola, Painter
1533(?)-1626]
That Sophonisba Anguisciola was very young when she first attracted
notice from the great, is proved by the fact that she sent a likeness
of herself--a likeness now at Vienna--to Pope Julius III., who died in
1555. It was in her twenty-seventh year that she made her way, with
ten attendants, to the Spanish Court, there to paint a history in
admired portraits of the great age of the _auto-da-fe_: a history
which _tempus edax_ has devoured, leaving us only those works which
Sophonisba turned out in her native country, far away from the dark
tragedies of the Escorial. Philip the Second married his protegee to a
wealthy Sicilian noble, Don Fabrizio de Moncada, giving her a huge
dowry of 12,000 ducats, a pension of 1,400 scudi, and a dress loaded
with pearls, besides other presents.
Sophonisba retired with her husband to Palermo, where she soon became
a widow. Then Philip and his Queen wished her to return to Madrid; but
the artist pleaded an excuse, the excuse of homesickness, and set sail
for Italy. The captain of the galley of war, Orazio Lomellini, was a
handsome man of good family, a native of Genoa; his gallantry had
suffered a sea-change, was altogether breezy, sailor-like, delightful;
and Sophonisba not only fell in love with him, she took him at a
leap-year advantage, and soon changed her "weeds" for a bridal dress.
When Van Dyck met her at Genoa (1622), and painted several members of
her husband's family, Sophonisba was upwards of eighty-seven years
old, and quite blind; but the blithe old lady still went on painting
so well in her familiar conversations that Van Dyck said he had learnt
more from her talk than from his other teachers. Had Steele an
inkling of this magnificent compliment when he said that to love the
Lady Elizabeth Hastings was a liberal education? Addison may have
heard of it in Italy, and in turning over his thoughts before Master
Richard, may have dropped it generously. But, however this may be,
Stirling gives too much point to Van Dyck's words; for he says boldly,
in _The Annals of the Artists of Spain_, that my painter's portraits
are little inferior to those by Titian. "Of this evidence is
afforded," says he, "by that beautiful portrait of her, which is now
no mean gem of the galleries and libraries of Althorp."
Perhaps one may defy critics to name a single latter-day "realist"
among the fair who has attained to Artemisia Gentileschi's masterful
and singular ruthlessness, as in the several pictures of Judith that
she painted. One of these pictures will be found on page 45. It is the
least relentless of the series, but it shows clearly enough the grip
of Artemisia's hand in tragedy. Curiously, the suave Guido was
Artemisia's first teacher, but she learnt more from Domenichino, and
more still from the years she passed at Naples, then known as "the
sink of all iniquity." But Artemisia Gentileschi is sometimes kind in
her work, and gentle; she does not always remind us of that Artemisia
who fought so well at Salamis, causing Xerxes to cry: "Behold! the men
behave like women, and the women like men!" In her excellent
portraits, and in pictures like the "Mary Magdalene," on page 31, she
blends some graciousness of thought with vigour and variety of
technique.
Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani were the ablest women painters
whose travels did not extend beyond Italy. The first was a member of
the old Roman Academy, and Pope Gregory XIII. made her his portraitist
in ordinary. She was born of good family in Bologna, anno 1552. It was
her father that shaped the laggard talents of Lodovico Carracci, and
from him came the girl's first lessons in drawing. Lavinia spent most
of her life in Rome, where, for close on two generations, she held
society by the austere truth of her portraiture. Ladies of high rank
vied with one another to become her sitters, and a long red line of
cardinals sat to her. Pope Paul the Fifth was among Lavinia's models;
very high prices were paid readily for her work, and not a few
noblemen wished to marry her; but the artist remained true to the
young Count of Imola, Giovanni Paolo Zappi, a good, kind,
simple-hearted fellow, an aristocratic Barnaby Rudge. Him she married,
and it was her ill-hap to see his simplicity repeat itself in one of
their two sons, a lad who kept the Pope's antechamber merry.
My artist's style, though modelled to some extent on that of the
Carracci, has a distinction of its own. Even the arid Kuegler gives
Lavinia his rare good word, reckoning her a better artist than her
father, and adding: "Her work is clever and bold, and in portraiture,
especially, she has left good things."
Does Elisabetta Sirani take precedence of Lady Waterford? Perhaps they
may be regarded as two equal queens in the world of woman's art, each
with a beautiful artistic intellect. Even at the age of nineteen, as
old Bartsch admits, Elisabetta etched exquisite plates; and, before
she was twenty-three, her paintings were sought after by all the
patron-critics of her country. Yet her male rivals hinted that she was
dishonest, that she did not paint her own pictures, but had "ghosts"
to win fame and fortune for her--especially her father, a poor
"ghost," afflicted with inherited gout. Elisabetta happily soon turned
the sneer against her rivals. This she did by working before an
audience of distinguished persons, like Cosimo, Crown Prince of
Tuscany, who on May 13th, 1664, stood by whilst she painted a likeness
of his uncle, the Prince Leopold.
Malvasia gives in his spirited monograph a list of 150 pictures by
Elisabetta Sirani; and Lanzi deemed it marvellous that one who died so
young should yet have brought to completion so many hopeful efforts of
real genius. The brilliant girl painted with great rapidity. One of
her finest achievements--the "Baptism of Christ"--is a very large
picture, and the story of its conception is noteworthy. Elisabetta was
little more than twenty at the time, and the clergy who had been sent
to order the work for the Church of the Certosini at Bologna, looked
on whilst she, radiant with inspiration, made her first impulsive
sketch in pen-and-ink. The beholders were enchanted, and the huge
picture, differing little in essentials from the sketch, was painted
almost as rapidly as Dumas repeopled the distant past. In brief,
Elisabetta Sirani, like all women of genius, worked under an intuitive
rather than technical guidance; and in her art, consequently, as in
Lady Waterford's, we find those blemishes and beauties which belong to
a native habit of spontaneous workmanship.
As to her private life, it is full of heroic virtues. The noble girl
kept the whole family: her mother, who was stricken with paralysis;
her father, who suffered intolerably from the gout; and her two
sisters, whom she educated with a large class of girl art-students.
Then Cupid came, saw, and was overcome, and Elisabetta, by way of
celebrating this unkind victory, painted the little god in the act of
crowning his victor. But the pity of it all was this: the girl had so
many taut strings to her bow that the frail bow could not but break.
Elisabetta's health gave way, a painful disease of the stomach
assailed her; and yet to the last day but one of her short life--i.e.,
August 27th, 1665--she remained true to her colours, and was one of
art's truest soldiers. "The best way not to feel pain is not to think
of it," said she, and then went slowly back to her studio.
The present book contains adequate examples of the work of Elisabetta
Sirani, of Lavinia Fontana Zappi, of Artemisia Gentileschi, of
Sophonisba Anguisciola, of Rosalba Carriera; and there is a good
drawing by Diana Ghisi, the painter-engraver, an excellent copy by
Maria Tibaldi Subleyras, and two characteristic pictures by Agnese
Dolci, sister of Carlo Dolci and his equal in talent. These painters
and the early nuns, Caterina Vigri and the three sisters of Santa
Marta, Siena, are enough to represent the old Italian schools; while
three characteristic pictures by Elisa Koch, Juana Romani, and Rosina
Gutti, unite the present with the far-distant past, a past separated
from the present day by four hundred and fifty years.
WALTER SHAW SPARROW.
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
"MARY MAGDALENE." AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE PITTI GALLERY
FLORENCE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON, ROME
Artemisia Lomi, called Artemisia Gentileschi, Painter
1590-1642]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XV CENTURY
SAINT URSULA AND HER MAIDENS. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI AFTER
THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, VENICE
Santa Caterina Vigri di Bologna, Painter
1413-1463]
[Illustration: SIENESE SCHOOL, XVI CENTURY
ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE AT SIENA
IN THE PROVINCIAL INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS
Sister A., Convent of Santa Marta, Siena, Painter]
[Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY WITH JOHN THE BAPTIST. AFTER THE
ORIGINAL PICTURE AT SIENA IN THE PROVINCIAL INSTITUTE OF FINE
ARTS Sister B., Convent of Santa Marta, Siena, Painter About
1500]
[Illustration: SIENESE SCHOOL, XVI CENTURY
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE AT
SIENA IN THE PROVINCIAL INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS
Sister Barbara Ragnoni, Painter
About 1500]
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH ST CATHARINE AND OTHER
SAINTS. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE AT SIENA IN THE PROVINCIAL
INSTITUTE Sister A., Convent of Santa Marta, Siena, Painter
About 1500]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF CREMONA, XVI CENTURY
PORTRAIT (PAINTED BY HERSELF) OF SOPHONISBA ANGUISCIOLA OR
ANGUSSOLA, FAR-FAMED IN HER TIME AS ONE OF THE LEADING ITALIAN
ARTISTS; SHE DID MUCH WORK FOR PHILIP II. OF SPAIN. WHEN SHE WAS
VERY OLD AND BLIND, VAN DYCK MET HER AT GENOA, AND SAID THAT HE
HAD LEARNT MORE FROM HER TALK THAN FROM HIS OTHER TEACHERS. FROM
A PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON, ROME, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT
MILAN IN THE POLDI-PEZZOLI COLLECTION
Sophonisba Auguisciola or Angussola, Painter
1533(?)-1626]
[Illustration: VENETIAN SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
CHARITY AND JUSTICE. AFTER THE PASTEL IN THE ROYAL GALLERY
DRESDEN. FROM A CARBON PRINT BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS
Rosalba Carriera, Pastellist
1675-1757]
[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL XVI CENTURY
MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHARINE, AFTER AN ETCHING BY N. MUXEL
Lavinia Fontana Zappi, Painter
1552-1614(?)]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A LADY. AFTER AN ETCHING BY N. MUXEL
Sophonisba Anguisciola, Painter 1533-(?)1626]
[Illustration: A VICTOR IN HIS TRIUMPHAL CHARIOT. AFTER THE
DRAWING IN THE PRINT ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. E. GRAY
Diana Ghisi, called Mantuana, Painter-Engraver
1530-1590]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVI CENTURY
PORTRAIT (EXECUTED BY HERSELF) OF LAVINIA FONTANA ZAPPI, PAINTER
IN ORDINARY TO POPE GREGORY XIII. FROM A CARBON PRINT BY BRAUN,
CLEMENT & CO., PARIS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE UFFIZI
GALLERY, FLORENCE
Lavinia Fontana Zappi, Painter
1552-1614(?)]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVI CENTURY
JESUS CHRIST TALKING WITH THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. AFTER THE
ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, NAPLES. FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI
Lavinia Fontana Zappi, Painter
1552-1614(?)]
[Illustration: MARY AND THE CHILD JESUS IN THE ACT OF CROWNING A
SAINT. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE LOUVRE, PARIS, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. W. A. MANSELL & CO. Barbara Longhi,
Painter
End of 16th Century]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
PORTRAIT: (EXECUTED BY HERSELF) OF ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI, WHO
LIVED FOR A TIME IN ENGLAND AND WORKED FOR CHARLES THE FIRST.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN
EARL SPENCER'S COLLECTION
Artemisia Lomi, called Artemisia Gentileschi, Painter
1590-1642]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
"THE DREAM OF SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA." FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
ANDERSON, ROME, AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE PINACOTECA IN BOLOGNA
Elisabetta Sirani, Painter
1638-1665]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
JUDITH AND HER MAID WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES. FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE PITTI
GALLERY, FLORENCE
Artemisia Lomi, called Artemisia Gentileschi, Painter
1590-1642]
[Illustration: BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
THE MADONNA WEEPING. FROM AN ORIGINAL ETCHING DATED 1657, IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
Elisabetta Sirani, Painter-Etcher
1638-1665]
[Illustration: THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. FROM THE ORIGINAL ETCHING
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Elisabetta Sirani, Painter-Etcher
1638-1665]
[Illustration: FLORENTINE SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
MARY AND THE CHILD JESUS. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT &
CO., PARIS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE BESANCON MUSEUM
"JESUS TOOK BREAD AND BLESSED IT..." FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN
CLEMENT & CO., PARIS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE LOUVRE
Agnese Dolci Painter
Died about 1686]
[Illustration: VENETIAN SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
PORTRAIT STUDY OF A LADY WITH HER PET MONKEY. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
BY LEVY & SONS AFTER THE ORIGINAL PASTEL IN THE LOUVRE, PARIS
PORTRAIT STUDY OF CARDINAL DE POLIGNAC. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
ANDERSON AFTER THE ORIGINAL PASTEL IN VENICE
Rosalba Carriera, Pastellist
1675-1757]
[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL, ABOUT 1889
THE LITTLE SISTER. REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY PERMISSION OF
BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS
Signorina Elisa Koch Painter]
[Illustration: VENETIAN SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
PORTRAIT STUDY OF A GIRL. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY LEVY & SONS,
PARIS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PASTEL IN THE LOUVRE
PORTRAIT OF ROSALBA CARRIERA, THE MOST FAMOUS PASTELLIST OF HER
TIME. FROM ANDERSON'S PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PASTEL IN ROME
Rosalba Carriera, Pastellist
1675-1757]
[Illustration: ROMAN SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
MARY MAGDALENE AT THE FEET OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF SIMON
THE PHARISEE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI AFTER THE PAINTING IN
ROME IN THE GALLERIA CAPITOLINA. IT IS A COPY AFTER A PICTURE BY
THE ARTIST'S HUSBAND, PIERRE SUBLEYRAS, A PICTURE NOW IN THE
LOUVRE, PARIS. MARIA TIBALDI SUBLEYRAS PRESENTED THIS COPY TO
POPE BENEDICT XIV, WHO SENT HER A THOUSAND SCUDI, AND PLACED HER
WORK IN HIS COLLECTION AT THE CAPITOL
Maria Tibaldi Subleyras, Painter
Born 1707]
[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
THE PEACEMAKER.
REPRODUCED AFTER THE ORIGINAL DRAWING FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY THE
AUTOTYPE CO., NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON
Rosina Mantovani Gutti, Artist]
[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
STUDY FROM A MODEL. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS
Juana Romani, Painter]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF ENGLISH WATER COLOUR, XIX. CENTURY
"THE AKROPOLIS, ATHENS: FROM THE BALCONY OF THE CROWN PRINCE'S
HOUSE." FROM THE WATER-COLOUR DRAWING IN THE COLLECTION OF JAMES
ORROCK, ESQ., R.I.
H.I.M. The Empress Frederick of Germany, R.I.
1840-1901]
Early British Women Painters
Everybody knows that it has fallen to England's lot to gem the remote
seas with shining repetitions of herself. But everybody does not
remember that she has done this quite at haphazard, just as the winds
carry seeds from a garden to a waste ground. In herself, with fitful
moments of purposeful energy, England has been self-critical and
self-distrustful, disinclined to value her own doings or to take
precautions when in the midst of dangers. But for the individual
enterprise of her children, which she has often disowned and punished,
her colonies would have been the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight.
And it is singular to note also that the history of England's genius
in art has followed the traditional character of her devious
makeshifts in commerce and in war. Despite all inherent weaknesses,
she has achieved at random a recognised greatness in art, and is so
surprised at it that she hesitates always to encourage the gifts of
her own craftsmen, preferring rather to have confidence in the work
which she can buy from men of genius in other countries. From the time
of Henry VIII. to the coming of the school of Reynolds, she allowed
her own painters to starve in order that she might employ strangers;
and to-day, as in the past, she butterflies from foreign school to
foreign school and treats her own native arts to side-glances and
half-friendly nods.
Now, as this has ever been England's disposition, it is not surprising
to find that Englishwomen, as well as Englishmen, long hesitated to
follow the arts professionally. At a time when Italy and France had
scores of women painters, England had scarcely one. Perhaps the
earliest of any note, if we except Susannah Penelope Gibson, a
miniature painter, was Mrs. Mary Beale, daughter of a Suffolk
clergyman named Cradock. She lived between the years 1632 and 1697.
After modelling her style on that of Lely, she worked with great
courage, showing much real talent, particularly in quiet portraiture.
She painted broadly and well, drew with force and discrimination, and
although she told the truth plainly at a time when other painters
flattered and fawned, she yet achieved success, and was encouraged by
the highest in the land, from King Charles the Second to Archbishop
Tillotson. Time has robbed her colour of its first freshness, but the
character remains, and the portraits on page 81 represent Mary Beale
in a characteristic manner.
The next English women painters in order of merit were Lady Diana
Beauclerk, an amateur with much untutored talent, and Catharine Read,
a distinguished professional artist of the Reynolds period. That she
was appreciated in her day is proved by the fact that her portraits
were engraved, side by side with those of Reynolds and Gainsborough.
To-day she is forgotten, and very little can be learnt about her life
or about the present owners of her pictures. Catharine Read lived near
St. James's and sent frequently to the exhibitions. In 1770 she went
to the East Indies, but in a few years returned to London, where she
died in or about the year 1786.
Angelica Kauffman, R.A., though born at Coire, the capital of the
Grisons, belongs to the British school, and holds in the early history
of that school a position similar to that which has been assigned in
France to Madame Vigee Le Brun. The art of the two ladies differs
widely to be sure, that of Angelica Kauffman having less mirth, less
wit, less sprightliness and homeful sincerity; it is quite artificial
in spirit, with a strong bias towards the sentimental; but it has for
all that considerable charm and ability, qualities, let us remember,
that won the admiration of Reynolds and of Goethe. Turner, also,
possessed two of her drawings, as I am told by his descendant, Mr
Charles Mallord W. Turner. But in recent times Angelica Kauffman has
been remembered for the romance of her personal life and treated with
cool contempt in all that appertains to her work. Critics have
searched in her pictures for manly qualities, and finding there the
temperament of a sentimental woman, their judgment has failed them.
The very men who would be astonished beyond measure if a prima donna
sang to them in a voice like the leading tenor's, do not hesitate to
complain when the voice in a woman's painting is one filled with
womanhood.
In England, at the close of the 18th century, quite a number of ladies
came to the front in art, like Caroline Watson, the admirable stipple
engraver (page 89), or like Catherine Maria Fanshawe, a painter-etcher
who could put a body into a peasant's smock and could show in a rustic
figure the mingled influences of Morland and Gainsborough, while
keeping a tender sympathy of her own (page 89). Amelia Hotham, too, in
the native art of water-colour, attained to a broad and vigorous style
in landscape, while taking far too many hints from the scenic pomp
that Francis Nicholson made popular in outdoor scenes (page 88).
Nevertheless, Amelia Hotham's work has interest in the history of
British water-colour, like that of three other ladies who followed
her, the Viscountess Templetown (page 94), Matilda Heming and Mrs.
John Herford, the grandmother of Mrs. Allingham. Matilda Heming's
picture on page 95, "Backwater, Weymouth, Dorset," is weak in the
drawing of the hills, but the rest of the design is quite admirable,
the boats particularly being very well drawn. We see, then, that
during the last decades of the 18th century, and at the beginning of
the nineteenth, a little band of Englishwomen studied landscape
painting seriously; and this fact is worth remembering, as women have
seldom been drawn in art to nature in the woods and fields. The
gentler sex, as a rule, has not appreciated landscapes.
On the other hand, they have shown in art a great love for the
beauty of flowers, the colour and the forms of insects, and the
"other-naturalness" of many kinds of animals. Maria Sibylla Merian,
Rachel Ruysch, Rosa Bonheur, Fidelia Bridges, Mrs. Coleman Angell,
Madame Ronner, Mlle. E. Hilda, Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch--these ladies will
not be forgotten, let us hope, as long as there are students who take
delight in plants, flowers, birds and animals.
Among the flower and fruit painters in England, during the 18th
century and the first few decades of the nineteenth, conspicuous
places must be assigned to Mary Moser, R.A., Mrs. Margaret Meen, and
Anne Frances Byrne, illustrations of whose pictures will be found on
page 94; and the reader will do well to compare this early work with
that of Mrs. Coleman Angell, the female counterpart of William Hunt
(page 102).
Whilst these flower-painters were busy, another small group of ladies
won considerable popularity by their little figure-subjects, such as
the Countess Spencer's drawing on page 90, or again, like the fanciful
miniatures by Mrs. Mee or the sentimental portraits by Mrs. J.
Robertson, types of which are given on page 93. Miss Curran's portrait
of Shelley is a valuable portrait-sketch historically (page 90), and
it has something of the charm that distinguishes the able portraits
drawn to-day by the Marchioness of Granby.
What can be said about Mrs. Margaret Carpenter? Is she not to be
placed among those quiet, unpretentious portrait-painters whose
thoughts are so wrapped up in their determination to be true that they
never think of striving after exhibition-room effects? Margaret
Carpenter gives us the character of her sitters, and not technical
displays of her own cleverness. Born at Salisbury, in 1793, the
daughter of Captain Geddes, this able painter came to London in 1814,
and married, in 1817, William Carpenter, who for many years was Keeper
of the Print Room in the British Museum. She exhibited often at the
Royal Academy until 1864, and made a great reputation by her
portraits. She died in 1872, leaving a son, William Carpenter
(1819-1899), to continue the art tradition which she had herself
carried on in her family.
[Illustration: ENGLISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF THE LADY GEORGIANA SPENCER. AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE
COLLECTION OF EARL SPENCER. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL
Catharine Read, Painter
Died about 1786]
Some may think that Margaret Carpenter began the modern history of
women painters in England; others may grant that distinction to the
intuitive and radiant work of Lady Waterford, that most gifted of all
amateurs. It seems truer to say that Margaret Carpenter is best
described as a connecting-link between the old and the new, and that
Lady Waterford is not only so faithful to herself but so spontaneous,
that her good gifts belong to no particular school or period. They
certainly owed much to the colour of the Venetian School, far more
to that old source of inspiration than to any influence of the 19th
century. But the main characteristics of Lady Waterford's appeal come
to us from the painter's own heart and beautiful aesthetic intellect.
The ease with which she composed, and the charming animation of all
her designs, these were natural qualities uninfluenced by any
teaching; and they won the ardent admiration of the late Mr. G. F.
Watts. It is the spirit alone of Lady Waterford's art that we should
admire; we must not look closely at the drawing, for Lady Waterford
neither tried nor wished to perfect her faulty technical equipment.
Most of her art-work was done after a day spent in other charities. It
was Lady Waterford's joy to dole out alms herself, and it never
occurred to her that she might do such good actions by proxy, just as
Queen Charlotte picked up five old books in the booths of Holywell
Street. The truth is that Lady Waterford valued practicalness more
than imagination, as do the great majority of women; she longed to
_see_ the good she did, and she could not realise to herself that art
has a permanent ethical influence. Closing her eyes to this truth,
Lady Waterford wrote as follows to one of her friends:--
"I could never attain to even one work that I see in my mind's eye, and
if I could it would be less than those of the great men of old, _whose
greatest works have not quelled evil or taught good_.... I could not
live for art--it would not be what I am put in the world to do. I do
not despise art, but I should feel that it was not given for that. Two
homes have been given me, and it is to try to do what I can in them
that they are given for brief life."
Is not that pathetic? Is it not the very music of a woman's
rationalism? What has "quelled evil?" But if our hearts and minds rise
to an entire sympathy with Lady Waterford's sketches, we shall
certainly feel that a noble spirit in art does indeed "teach good," is
a spiritual almsgiving for all time, a charity that goes on
ministering, through long generations, to that which is best in human
nature.
WALTER SHAW SPARROW.
[Illustration: DESIGN BY CHRISTINE ANGUS.]
Modern British Women Painters
By Ralph Peacock
It is the privilege of man, in his youth, to ignore his limitations.
For this ignorance he pays in failure the price of a possible success.
In his wiser middle age he does not repent, he finds that it is only
by some sort of an attack on his limitations that apparent results are
attained, and he learns to take on faith the difference there is in
fact between the attainment and the attempt. The experience of a woman
is, I take it, very similar. It follows in no way that, because her
limitations are different from, and in a physical sense greater than,
man's, the brutal laws which go to produce results are in her case
different. She is marching along the same road, and though she may
have other stopping places by the way and perhaps may take up more
modest quarters in the end, it is a journey and an arrival, an effort
and a result, and the things seen by the wayside become of
significance to her as the painted banners under which she seeks her
way.
Englishwomen do not seem to have done much in painting before the
generation or two that are just past. Public opinion was against them.
The early Victorian conditions under which a woman like Charlotte
Bronte produced her great results in another art are more or less
familiar to all, and in the matter of painting the voice of prejudice
has had still more to say. By these days it has croaked itself into
the feeble hoarseness of a respectable and decent old age, and we can
already look back to a succession of women painters who seem to have
been conscious at first of their leading-strings, but who have shown a
development more than corresponding to that of the conditions under
which they worked. Kate Greenaway, who died only a few years ago, was
no doubt a good example of the charming results to be obtained in
leading-strings. To compare her with an artist who works in a similar
field to-day is to note an advance, not only of a generation, but of
the changing educational conditions within the generation. It is a far
cry from Kate Greenaway to Miss Alice Woodward, for instance, and it
is difficult to imagine that another age will say anything more, or
less, of Miss Woodward than that she was a most distinguished artist.
The leading-strings are gone.
It will always be a special field for women, the production of work in
the first place for children, and it is unnecessary to spend time in
emphasising or over-emphasising its importance. Art itself reckons
little with motives and much with results. In a more general view it
would, perhaps, be better to start this small article with some notice
of the women painters of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. There is Mrs. Mary Beale, who was a child when
Cromwell was Lord Protector, and who later on painted a most excellent
portrait of Charles II. There is some work of hers in the National
Portrait Gallery, London, work of the quiet, genuine kind, and better
than most of the painting that came for some time afterwards. Then
there is Angelica Kauffman, R.A., who provides us with perhaps the
only well-known name of the early periods, and there are some
portrait-painters of interest, like Miss Catharine Read, of Reynolds'
time, or like Mrs. Anne Mee, of the early part of last century. But it
must be confessed that it would be a sorry list for a couple of
centuries if it were a fact that women had had the same opportunities
and no greater disabilities than the men of the period. It is not
indeed until we reach such painters as Margaret Carpenter, the
portrait painter, Mrs. Matilda Heming, the landscapist, and Lady
Waterford, that more than charming amateur who might have done so
much, that we begin to feel we have a reasonable genesis of the worker
of to-day. These painters show to us now rather the influences of
their time or the limitations of their opportunities, than
personalities which are outside such considerations, but they
nevertheless provide us with evidence of a very genuine and lively
activity.
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
THE SIBYL. AFTER THE PICTURE IN THE ROYAL GALLERY, DRESDEN. FROM
A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS
Maria Angelica Kauffman, R.A., Painter
1741-1807]
The work of Mrs. Heming is interesting in a rather more special way.
It is distinctly rare to find the ordinary landscapist of her time
working with an eye to truth rather than to the making of a so-called
composition of the period, rare enough in fact to place her quite
above the ordinary.
It is at first sight a curious thing that more women painters have not
even in these days been attracted by pure landscape. It is strange in
the sense that they have among them such painters as Lady Butler and
Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch. But no branch of art is more that of the
specialists than landscape. It developed later in history than any
other, and it calls to those who would tire of the didactic in human
thought and who might find in the study of any obviously human affair
something to remind them of a phase of experience they would, in
paint, avoid. No doubt the Empress Frederick turned to landscape as an
occupation of relief from the pressing human affairs in which her life
was involved, and it is just in such a way that the natural
landscapist turns from the human side of life to the more abstract
emotions he finds in the garden of the Great Spirit.
Women, I believe, are more held by the personal than the abstract.
Mrs. Allingham may be one of the exceptions. In any case Mrs.
Allingham claims quite a special place for herself in any
sketch-survey of the work of English women painters. Few women have
shown a more definitely English sympathy in landscape than she has.
Her method is simple, obvious and plain for all to see. For that
reason it would fail to appeal in any way to the Eclectics, or to
those among them, at any rate, who, in the words of a subtle Eclectic,
confound the natural with the commonplace. A distinctly home-bred
feeling, such as Mrs. Allingham has among women, or, in the grand
manner, Fred Walker among men, is however a very rare thing and is
becoming rarer. How far it may, in individual cases, change to other
things may be seen in some of the more modern painters, in the
remarkably strong work of Miss Margaret Cameron, Miss Biddie
Macdonald, Miss Alice Fanner, and Miss Beatrice How. This latter
painter has not merely been affected in matters of technique, but
gives us, most delightfully, the very sentiment of the country people
she paints. It is quite a little miracle of transplanted adaptability.
It has been said that every good woman has in her marching outfit a
supply of adaptability which, in sum total, accounts for most of the
happiness enjoyed by the human race at large. If so, it may be added
that in its superior manifestations the affair is sub-conscious,
artistic, most natural and not at all one of the commonplaces of life.
It perhaps explains, or rather is illustrated by, the number of
painters in the very first rank among women who have shown in their
work the influence of some near relative. In any case, Lady
Alma-Tadema for one has produced work so extraordinarily good in
itself that it is easy to believe the similarity of her technique to
that of Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema to be merely one of the happy chances
of her life. A very similar thought arises in connection with the work
of the late Miss Margaret Dicksee. It is easy to influence technique,
but first causes are not set in action by human hands. If one who did
not know her may say so, there is written on the canvases that Miss
Dicksee has left behind the evidence of a most lovable nature.
Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch and Lady Granby are
isolated examples whose work has no connection in itself and shows
very little affinity, beneath the surface, with the special influences
of their time. The strong brushwork of Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, it is
true, may be said to have arrived by way of Newlyn, but the fanciful
sentiment underlying her work has an arrival quite of its own. Miss
Lucy Kemp-Welch has made, and deserved, a place for herself the last
few years, and she stands alone among women as an animal painter of
power. Lady Granby, who is an amateur, is also an artist. Magna est
ars et prevalet. Ave!
Miss Mary Gow, the late Alice Havers, Miss Jessie Macgregor, Miss Anna
Alma-Tadema, Miss Lily Blatherwick, Miss Amy Sawyer, and Louisa Starr
(Madame Canziana) also make a special appeal, each in her own way.
Mrs. Swynnerton is a lady who has given us a great deal of work of a
very high order indeed. In the first place she has always something to
say that is worth saying. Her work is exuberant with the joy of life,
the joy of colour. Her very brush is surcharged with a high and lavish
spirit. Blue eyes look out, so blue, from happy sunburnt faces, so
sunburnt, that take their places on her canvases as in a drama to tell
us something of her thoughts and of themselves. Mrs. Swynnerton, plus
her faults, is genuine through and through. The work of another
painter, Mrs. De Morgan, naturally comes into consideration when we
turn to symbolism. More tenaciously in earnest and more austere in
every way than Mrs. Swynnerton, her work is as the poles apart. The
one romps, if the term be allowed, in a flower-spangled meadow, the
other's province is the study; and, as is the way with students, her
mind is often on the thought of the past rather than with affairs of
the present. Before one of Mrs. De Morgan's pictures one thinks
through, by way of Burne-Jones, to Botticelli and the great ancestors
of art, and it is saying a very great deal for Mrs. De Morgan that in
such case one can bless the passive hand that gives and the hand that
receives.
Her work may very well lead us to a small band of artists, not
definitely connected in themselves, but allied with each other in the
sense that they work for somewhat similar ends: Mrs. Marianne Stokes,
Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale and Mrs. Young Hunter. To these,
perhaps, may one day be added a name very little known at present,
Miss Milicent E. Gray. It is not unusual in speaking of the work of
either of these first three artists, and more especially of Miss
Eleanor Brickdale, to refer to the pre-Raphaelite influence in art. It
is, however, extremely probable that the influence takes direct effect
in these days more as a method than as a conviction. The great
conviction itself has leavened Art, and the individualities of these
painters are so strong that it becomes in their case a nearer interest
to ignore all potters and regard the clay. Mrs. Young Hunter has a
quaint flitting fancy that wanders over hill and dale and seizes from
life subtle little touches that are full of the elusiveness of tales
told after school hours.
Mrs. Marianne Stokes is made of sterner stuff. She has worked of late
in that most stern and stubborn medium, tempera, and small things of
hers in various exhibitions attract one always with the desire to know
more of her most attractive work. Miss Eleanor Brickdale works, or
plays, always with an idea. And the idea she is not satisfied to leave
until it has taken on for other eyes a most cunning and beautiful
bodily shape, in line, in form, in colour--above all in line. She is
probably, without knowing it, as good an antithesis as may be found of
the Impressionist, so-called. The Impressionist is the incarnation of
the abstract in terms of paint, the Symbolist uses the material to
convey definite abstractions in thought. It is, by contrast with
music, the motive of symphony as compared to the motive of Oratorio or
opera, and the apposite methods may be equally well, or badly, used or
abused. Abuse may lead the militant Impressionist to an impasse of
assertive agnosticism as pedantic in its way as the lucubrations of
the most literary pedant in paint. On the other side of the lantern
you may have Watts, and the painted canvases of a Whistler. So be it.
Art is a long lane with many turnings, and down each there may be
found a little house with a fireside and human hearts thereby.
RALPH PEACOCK.
[Illustration: SILHOUETTE BY NELLY BODENHEIM]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, 1900.
YOUTH AND THE LADY. REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR,
BY KIND PERMISSION OF CHARLES DOWDESWELL, ESQ., THE OWNER OF THE
PICTURE AND ITS COPYRIGHT.
Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Painter]
Women Painters in the United States of America
During the 19th century, in the United States of America, there came
slowly into existence a new school of painting--new often in temper
rather than in manner, for its followers usually came to Europe for
their methods. Race, climate, religion, commerce, social life,
influence art, and the painters of the United States reveal in their
work all the characteristics for which their country has long been
famous: vivacity, invention, constant enterprise, a democratic
enthusiasm, a love of truth (truth often united with romance or else
with sensationalism), and last, but not least, a rare felicity in
transforming borrowed knowledge into something quite original. It is
not often that a civilisation embodies itself in the genius of one
man, giving an epitome of all its dominant qualities; but in Mr. John
S. Sargent, R.A., we recognise a painter of tremendous gifts who does
for the United States what the manly, swaggering Rubens did for
Flanders, symbolising a people and a civilisation.
One sign of the democratic spirit in the progress of American Art is
to be noticed in the fact that women have participated largely in the
honours gained by the pioneers. It is noteworthy, for instance, that
the first book on Women Painters should have been written by an
American lady, Mrs Ellet, as far back as 1859. Mrs. Ellet showed great
industry, but following a custom rashly encouraged by writers on art,
she believed that she could teach painting and sculpture by the use of
words alone, in recording biographical facts, and in offering
criticisms on work that her readers could not see in illustrations.
Written history is the phonograph of all past centuries, but the
understanding of art owes little to its words.
Still, the enthusiasm that fired Mrs. Ellet was shared by many of her
countrywomen, and to it we owe some truly clever artists, like the
four sculptors, Harriet Hosmer, Florence Freeman, Edmonia Lewis and
Emma Stebbins, or like the following painters: Emily Sartain
(portraits and genre), Sara M. Peale (portraits), Mrs. J. W. Dewing
(portraits, subject pictures, flowers and still-life), Annie C. Shaw
(cattle and landscapes), Mrs. Adele Fassett (portraits) Mrs. Elisa
Greatorex (landscapes), Mrs. Henry A. Loop (portraits), Ella A. Moss
(portraits), Jennie Brownscombe (subject pictures), May Alcott (copies
after J. M. W. Turner and still-life), Elizabeth Boott (figure
subjects), Charlotte B. Coman (landscapes in the manner of Corot), and
that delicate recorder of pleasant secrets learnt from nature in the
fields, Fidelia Bridges. The very titles of this lady's pictures have
the fragrance of field flowers or else they glow with the plumage of
birds. It has been said of Fidelia Bridges that her art sings little
pastoral lyrics, and her art is certainly very fresh and sweet,
charmed with much sympathetic appreciation of nature in some of her
unnumbered smiling moods. For Fidelia Bridges, like Birket Foster,
paints as though the year were all springtime, a series of twelve May
months, all full of gaiety and bounty. She seldom takes heed of that
eternal warfare which accompanies Nature's bountifulness, filling the
seed-carrying winds with the presence of death, and setting every
living thing to prey upon another. To this part of Nature's life
Fidelia Bridges usually shuts her eyes, unlike Miss E. M. Carpenter,
whose landscape art reveals at times the menacing suggestion of great
rivers and of high solitary mountains.
It would serve no useful purpose to enumerate all the earlier women
painters of the United States. They worked bravely and well, and if
their doings are now forgotten or undervalued, it is only because the
harvest sowed by them is being reaped by the present generation.
To-day the names of at least two American women painters, Mary Cassatt
and Cecilia Beaux, are known in every country where good art is
studied. Mary Cassatt, the only pupil of Degas, is bracketed always
with Berthe Morisot, for both ladies became Impressionists at about
the same time, adding the charm of their personalities to a rugged
revolt in art. The work of each has great interest, but that of Mary
Cassatt is the more attractive and the more enduring. It is not
overburdened with a heavy adherence to methods originated by men; and
it is richer with the emotions of the painter's own heart. To Mary
Cassatt, Impressionism is a chosen dialect, a means by which she can
express herself in colour and form; to Berthe Morisot, on the other
hand, it was in itself the final word in painting. So, mistaking the
clay of art for the finished statue, she obeyed the methods of a
school with so much zeal and so much self-sacrifice that her own
nature became enslaved to the difficulties of technique. Compare
Berthe Morisot's able study (page 211) with the charming homeliness of
Mary Cassatt's picture (page 157), and you will see at a glance how
wide is the difference between the emotional and aesthetic value of the
subjects represented. Berthe Morisot remains a student, while Mary
Cassatt passes beyond technique to a universal delight in childhood.
She feels both the pathos and the humour of the beginnings of our
life, and she makes infancy welcome in art because she understands it
and shows no maudlin sentiment.
Something of the same kind is done by Miss Cornelia Conant, in her
domestic picture called "The End of the Story" (page 151); and another
view of child-life, delightfully rendered by Helen Hyde, may be seen
in colour on page 145.
The pictures by which Miss Cecilia Beaux is represented in this book
show very clearly that her genius has dramatic strength, sustention,
and flexibility. The portrait on page 182 is handled with a sculptural
vigour that responds admirably to the character of the sitter, while
the "Mother and Child" (page 121) has a quietness of tone, a reserved
simplicity of style, a permeating suggestion of pathos, having much in
common with Whistler's portrait of his mother. Miss Cecilia Beaux is a
dramatist in her studies of character, and her art is probably more
subtle and more various than that of any woman painter who has devoted
her life to portraiture. The reader will do well to contrast her style
with that of Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt, the first woman painter whose
work was purchased by the Chantrey Fund, London (page 139).
It is fitting now that a list should be given of other leading artists
of the United States, though their work is not represented here, owing
to the adventures in delays that attend a despatch of letters from
London to America.
1. Sarah C. Sears (Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears), pupil of Turner, Brush
and Tarbell; prizes at New York, 1893, Chicago, 1893, Paris, 1900,
Buffalo, 1901, Charleston, 1902. 2. Miss Mary L. Macomber, pupil of
Boston Museum; prizes at Boston, 1895, Atlanta, 1895, National Academy
of Design, 1897, Pittsburgh, 1901. 3. Miss Katherine Abbot, bronze
medal at Paris, 1900. 4. Miss Elizabeth F. Bonsall, pupil of Howard
Pyle, prize winner at Philadelphia, 1885, 1888, 1897. 5. Miss Matilda
Browne, pupil of Dewey and Bisbing, medals at Chicago, 1890, National
Academy of Design, 1899 and 1901. 6. Miss Maria Brooks, pupil of the
Royal Academy Schools, London. 7. Mrs. Brewster Sewell, pupil of Duran
in Paris, of Chase in New York; winner of several prizes, as at
Charleston in 1902. 8. Rosina Emmet Sherwood, pupil of Chase and of
Julian's School, Paris; prizes in Paris, 1889, Chicago, 1893, Buffalo,
1901. 9. Mrs. Emily M. Scott, prizes at Buffalo, 1901, New York, 1902.
10. Miss Rhoda H. Nicolls, born in England and studied in England; a
frequent prize-winner. 11. Edith M. Prellwitz, a frequent prize-winner
and a pupil of Brush, in New York, of Julian, in Paris. 12. Lydia
Field Emmet, pupil of Bouguereau, in Paris, of Chase, in New York;
prizes at Chicago, 1893, Atlanta, 1895, Buffalo, 1901. 13. Mrs. Kenyon
Cox, pupil of the National Academy of Design; prize-winner at Paris,
1900, at Buffalo, 1901. 14. Emma L. Cooper, Medals at Chicago, 1893,
Atlanta, 1895. 15. Mrs. Charlotte B. Comans, Medal at San Francisco,
1894. 16. Miss Clara S. MacChesney; and last, but not least, Miss Mary
F. MacMonnies.
W. S. S.
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
THE QUEEN AND THE PAGE. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY DIXON & SON, LONDON
Mrs. Marianne Stokes, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVII CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF THE ENGLISH POET, ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667). FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. A. MANSELL & CO., AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
Mrs. Mary Beale, born Cradock, Painter
1632-1697]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF KING CHARLES II OF ENGLAND. FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. A. MANSELL & CO., AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON Mrs. Mary Beale, born
Cradock, Painter
1632-1697]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
CARICATURE OF EDWARD GIBBON, HISTORIAN. IN THE PRINT ROOM, THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
Lady Diana Beauclerk, Amateur
1734-1808]
[Illustration: CUPIDS. AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY F. BARTOLOZZI, R.A.
Lady Diana Beauclerk, Amateur 1734-1808]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
ARIADNE. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE DRESDEN GALLERY,
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY V. A. BRUCKMANN, MUNICH
Maria Angelica Kauffman. R.A., Painter
1741-1807]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF MISS HARRIOT POWELL. FROM A MEZZOTINT BY RICHARD
HOUSTON. THE PROOF LENT BY MR. ALFRED DAVIS
Miss Catharine Read, Painter
Died about 1786]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MISS JONES. FROM AN ENGRAVING BY J.
WATSON, DATED 1767. THE PRINT LENT BY MR. ALFRED DAVIS Miss
Catharine Read, Painter Died about 1786]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
"THE FISHER WIFE." AFTER THE DRAWING IN WATER-COLOUR AND CRAYON,
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY W. E. GRAY, LONDON
Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY
PORTRAIT (PAINTED BY HERSELF) OF ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, R.A., AFTER
THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
ALINARI]
[Illustration: THE VESTAL VIRGIN. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN
THE ROYAL GALLERY, DRESDEN, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL
Maria Angelica Kauffman, R.A., Painter 1741-1807]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, 1793
RIVERSIDE LANDSCAPE WITH A CASTLE IN THE DISTANCE. PAINTED IN
1793, WHEN TURNER AND GIRTIN WERE ONLY EIGHTEEN. THE BREADTH AND
MANNER OF THIS DRAWING ARE THEREFORE REMARKABLE, ESPECIALLY AS
COMING FROM A LADY OF THAT TIME. THE SCENIC POMP OF THE DESIGN
POINTS TO THE INFLUENCE OF FRANCIS NICHOLSON. AFTER THE ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR (19-5/8 INCHES BY 26-3/4 INCHES) IN THE PRINT ROOM
OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY W. E. GRAY
Amelia Hotham, Painter
End of 18th Century]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, END OF XVIII CENTURY AND
BEGINNING OF XIX CENTURY
A COUNTRY BOY. REPRODUCED FROM AN ORIGINAL SOFT-GROUND ETCHING
THAT SHOWS THE MINGLED INFLUENCES OF GAINSBOROUGH AND MORLAND
Catherine Maria Fanshawe, Painter-Etcher
1765-1834]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SARAH, COUNTESS OF KINNOULL, FROM A
STIPPLE ENGRAVING AFTER A MINIATURE BY SAMUEL SHELLEY Caroline
Watson, Engraver to Queen Caroline 1760(?)-1814]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, EARLY XIX CENTURY A PINCH OF
SNUFF. AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY MADAME BOVI, A PUPIL OF F.
BARTOLOZZI, R.A. THE PRINT LENT BY MR. ALFRED DAVIS
Lavinia Countess Spencer, Amateur
Died 1831]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822).
AFTER THE ORIGINAL DRAWING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY,
LONDON. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. CASWALL SMITH Miss A. Curran,
Amateur
Died 1847]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
"FLORA." REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
Miss Evelyn Pickering (Mrs. William De Morgan), Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, EARLY XIX CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF MRS. STUART FROM A MEZZOTINT BY S. W. REYNOLDS,
KINDLY LENT BY MR. ALFRED DAVIS
Mrs. J. Robertson, Painter
Worked 1824 to 1844]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF LADY DALRYMPLE HAMILTON, DAUGHTER OF
ADMIRAL LORD DUNCAN FROM AN ENGRAVING BY J. AGAR Mrs. Anne Mee,
born Foldsone, Painter Died very old in 1851]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL 1764 TO 1826 VASE OF FLOWERS.
PAINTED IN 1764 AND FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF QUEEN
CHARLOTTE. AFTER THE TEMPERA PAINTING AT SOUTH KENSINGTON
Mary Moser, R.A. (Mrs. Hugh Lloyd)
1744-1819]
[Illustration: GROUP OF FLOWERS IN A JAR. PAINTED IN 1806 FOR
PRINCESS ELIZABETH, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE III. AFTER THE
WATER-COLOUR AT SOUTH KENSINGTON Mrs. Margaret Meen, Painter
Worked 1775 to 1810]
[Illustration: FLOWERS AND GRAPES. PAINTED IN 1826. AFTER THE
WATER-COLOUR AT SOUTH KENSINGTON
Miss Anne Frances Byrne, Painter
1775-1837]
[Illustration: WOOD SCENE. AFTER THE DRAWING IN INDIA INK ON A
WATER-COLOUR TINT AT SOUTH KENSINGTON
Viscountess Templetown, Amateur
Died 1824]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, EARLY XIX.
CENTURY BACKWATER, WEYMOUTH, DORSET. AFTER THE ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY W. E.
GRAY, LONDON Mrs. Matilda Heming, born Lowry, Painter
1808-1855]
[Illustration: LANDSCAPE AT KENILWORTH AFTER AN ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR BY THE GRANDMOTHER OF MRS. HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S.
Mrs. John Herford, Amateur]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, EARLY XIX CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF HENRIETTA SHUCKBURGH, AFTER THE WATER-COLOUR IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM
Mrs. Margaret Carpenter, born Geddes, Painter
1793-1872]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MARGARET CARPENTER. AFTER THE
WATER-COLOUR IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM Mrs. Margaret Carpenter, born
Geddes, Painter 1793-1872]
[Illustration: LODONA. FROM POPE'S "WINDSOR FOREST."
FROM THE ENGRAVING BY F. BARTOLOZZI, R.A.
Mrs. Maria Cosway, born Hadfield, Painter
1759-1838]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
"ELSPETH." AFTER THE ORIGINAL PORTRAIT IN BODY-COLOUR, BY KIND
PERMISSION OF MRS. J. M. CURRIE, LONDON
Miss Ann Macbeth, Painter]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, XIX CENTURY
PALM BRANCHES. AFTER THE ORIGINAL DRAWING FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
J. CASWALL SMITH, LONDON
Louisa Marchioness of Waterford, Painter
1818-1891]
[Illustration: SPRING. AFTER THE ORIGINAL DRAWING IN
WATER-COLOUR FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. CASWALL SMITH Louisa
Marchioness of Waterford, Painter 1818-1891]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XIX CENTURY
PORTRAIT OF JOHN GIBSON, R.A., SCULPTOR (1791-1866). AFTER THE
PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. A. MANSELL & CO.
Mrs. Margaret Carpenter, born Geddes, Painter
1793-1872]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF R. P BONINGTON, PAINTER (1801-1828).
AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON,
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY W. A. MANSELL & CO. Mrs. Margaret
Carpenter, born Geddes, Painter
1793-1872]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XIX CENTURY
JESUS CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. CASWALL SMITH
Louisa Marchioness of Waterford, Painter
1818-1891]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, XIX CENTURY
STUDY OF A BIRD'S NEST. REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING IN
WATER-COLOUR BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. BROWN & PHILLIPS
Mrs. Helen Cordelia Angell, born Coleman, Painter
1847-1884]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1901
"TO-DAY FOR ME." FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. DIXON & SON, AFTER THE
WATER-COLOUR IN THE COLLECTION OF MISS EVANS
Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1871
ELAINE. REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY
PERMISSION OF THE ARTS COMMITTEE, THE WALKER ART GALLERY,
LIVERPOOL
Mrs. Sophie Anderson, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1873
SINTRAM AND HIS MOTHER (VIDE DE LA MOTTE FOUQUE). REPRODUCED
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY PERMISSION OF THE ARTS COMMITTEE, THE
WALKER GALLERY, LIVERPOOL
Louisa Starr (Madame Canziana), Painter]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, 1875-1895
THROUGH THE WOOD. REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR AT
SOUTH KENSINGTON
Miss Ivy Heitland, Painter
1875-1895]
[Illustration: MOTHER AND CHILD. DATED 1894. FROM THE
WATER-COLOUR IN THE IONIDES COLLECTION AT SOUTH KENSINGTON Miss
Mary L. Gow, R.I., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1880
"BLANCHISSEUSES." REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL
PAINTING BY PERMISSION OF THE ARTS COMMITTEE, THE WALKER ART
GALLERY, LIVERPOOL
Miss Alice Havers, Painter
Died 1890]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, CONTEMPORARY
A COTTAGE NEAR CROCKEN HILL
FROM THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
Mrs. Helen Allingham, R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, 1888
THE POTATO HARVEST. AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR, DATED 1888,
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH KINDLY LENT BY THE ARTIST
Miss Edith Martineau, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1890
IN MEMORIAM. AFTER A PHOTOGRAPH BY HENRY DIXON & SON, BY KIND
PERMISSION OF MISS MARY A. DICKSEE AND FRANK DICKSEE, ESQ., R.A.
Miss Margaret Isabel Dicksee, Painter
1858-1903]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1887 AND 1890
GOOD FRIENDS. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING, DATED 1887, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS
Mrs. Elizabeth Strong, Painter]
[Illustration: THE END OF A STORY. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS Miss Emily
Hart, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1900
"SLEEP, THAT KNITS UP THE RAVELL'D SLEAVE OF CARE." FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH BY DIXON & SON, LONDON, AFTER THE ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR IN THE COLLECTION OF MISS EVANS
Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
LABOURERS OF THE NIGHT.
FROM THE STUDY IN OIL-COLOUR ON DRAWING PAPER
Miss Lucy E. Kemp-Welch, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
STUDY FROM THE LIFE.
AFTER THE ORIGINAL CHALK DRAWING
Evelyn Pickering (Mrs. William De Morgan), Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
YELLOW ROSES. AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
Mrs. William Duffield, R.I.
FROM A NEAPOLITAN VILLA. AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
Miss A. M. Youngman, R.I.]
[Illustration: ROOM AT LEICESTER IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE IS SAID TO
HAVE ACTED BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH. AFTER THE ORIGINAL SKETCH IN
WATER-COLOUR DATED 1903
Miss Alice M. Hobson, R.I., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
"A FOR APPLE-PIE: E EAT IT." AFTER THE ORIGINAL
DRAWING IN THE COLLECTION OF JOHN GREENAWAY, ESQ. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF FREDERICK WARNE & CO.
Miss Kate Greenaway, Illustrator
1846-1901]
[Illustration: "WHO LOVES A GARDEN LOVES A GREENHOUSE TOO" AFTER
THE ORIGINAL PICTURE EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF
WATER-COLOUR IN 1904
Miss A. M. Youngman, R.I.]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
ST. BRIDGET. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY R. J. W. HAINES
Mrs. Louise Jopling, R.B.A., Painter
WAIFS FROM THE GREAT CITY. COPYRIGHT RESERVED BY THE ARTIST
Mrs. Staples (M. Ellen Edwards), Illustrator]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY
MOTHER AND CHILD
AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
Miss Cecilia Beaux, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
DRAPERY STUDY. REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL
DRAWING
Evelyn Pickering (Mrs. William De Morgan)]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE LADY ALIX. EGERTON, FROM A
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING Miss Biddie Macdonald,
Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
WHITE TREASURES AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY
THE AUTOTYPE CO. NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON
Miss Florence White, Painter]
[Illustration: "HUSH! REMIND NOT EROS OF HIS WINGS." AFTER THE
ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR Miss Katharine Cameron, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1904
AFTER WORK
A STUDY IN LEAD PENCIL
Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch, Artist]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
"OLIVIA." REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY PERMISSION OF
MESSRS. BROWN & PHILLIPS, LONDON
Mrs. Mary Young Hunter, Illustrator]
[Illustration: "HE MARRIED A WIFE." AFTER THE ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR IN THE COLLECTION OF MISS EVANS Miss Eleanor
Fortescue Brickdale, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, XIX CENTURY
"A. FOR APPLE PIE: C. CUT IT." AFTER THE WATER COLOUR DRAWING IN
THE COLLECTION OF JOHN GREENAWAY, ESQ., REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION
OF MESSRS. FREDERICK WARNE & CO., OWNERS OF THE COPYRIGHT
Miss Kate Greenaway, Designer
1846-1901]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
PORTRAIT OF THE HON MRS. WALTER JAMES. AFTER THE ORIGINAL
PICTURE FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. DIXON & SON, LONDON
Mrs. Marianne Stokes, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
AN INTERESTING STORY
AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
Miss Marian Chase, Painter]
[Illustration: "WHERE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND?" AFTER AN ORIGINAL
PICTURE PAINTED IN 1902 Mrs. Mary Young Hunter, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1904
PORTRAIT OF MRS. BLAIR WITH HER DOGS. AFTER AN ORIGINAL PAINTING
THAT GAINED A "MENTION HONORABLE" IN THE SALON OF 1904
Miss Margaret Cameron, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
A SONG OF THE SEA
FROM THE ORIGINAL ETCHING
Miss Amelia Bauerle, Painter-Etcher]
[Illustration: FAUNS FROM THE ORIGINAL ETCHING Miss Amelia
Bauerle, Painter-Etcher]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1895
THE SENSE OF SIGHT. REPRODUCED FROM THE PAINTING IN THE WALKER
GALLERY, LIVERPOOL, BY PERMISSION OF THE ARTS COMMITTEE
Mrs. Annie L. Swynnerton, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
RIVERSIDE LANDSCAPE
AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
Miss Alice Fanner, Painter]
[Illustration: MEMORIES. AFTER THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
EXHIBITED IN 1904 AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN
WATER-COLOUR Miss Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1903
BLUEBELLS
FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
THE ROYAL ACADEMY, 1903
Miss Christabel A. Cockerell (Mrs. Geo. Frampton), Painter]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF BRITISH WATER-COLOUR, 1904
PONTE WIDMAN, VENICE. AFTER THE ORIGINAL OUT-DOOR SKETCH IN
WATER-COLOUR
Mrs. Helen Allingham, R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: CAMPANILE SAN STEFANO, VENICE. AFTER THE ORIGINAL
OUT-DOOR SKETCH IN WATER-COLOUR Mrs. Helen Allingham, R.W.S.,
Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1904
THE HERDSMAN OF ADMETUS AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE EXHIBITED IN
1904 AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS.
COPYRIGHT RESERVED
Miss Constance Phillott, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1890
"LOVE LOCKED OUT." AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE CHANTREY COLLECTION
IN THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL
Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Illustrator]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING IN CRAYONS.
Miss E. Fortescue Brickdale, Illustrator
LE REPAS. EXHIBITED AT THE PARIS SALON IN 1903
Miss Beatrice How, Painter]
[Illustration: THE LATE CECIL RHODES. AFTER THE PENCIL DRAWING
THE LATE LORD SALISBURY. AFTER THE PENCIL DRAWING The
Marchioness of Granby, Portraitist]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
ON THE WAY TO THE HORSE FAIR. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTOTYPE
CO., NEW OXFORD STREET LONDON
Miss Lilian Cheviot, Painter]
[Illustration: ALMOND BLOSSOM IN LONDON AFTER THE ORIGINAL
WATER-COLOUR Miss Rose Barton, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
DAY-DREAMS. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN WATER-COLOUR
Jane M. Dealy (Mrs. Lewis), R.I., Painter
BABY. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PORTRAIT IN WATER COLOUR
Jane M. Dealy (Mrs. Lewis), R.I., Painter]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY
"DAY DREAMS." FROM THE COLOURED WOODCUT IN THE JAPANESE MANNER.
PRINTED IN JAPAN BY NATIVE WORKMEN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE
ARTIST. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF MR. C. KLACKER. 12,
HAYMARKET, LONDON. COPYRIGHT IN ALL COUNTRIES
Miss Helen Hyde, Designer and Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL OF WATER-COLOUR, CONTEMPORARY
"IN WITH YOU!" REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN
BODY-COLOUR]
[Illustration: "CUCKOO." REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN
BODY-COLOUR Mrs. Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
IN THE REIGN OF TERROR. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING, DATED 1891,
IN THE WALKER GALLERY, LIVERPOOL
Miss Jessie Macgregor, Painter]
[Illustration: IN A DUTCH COTTAGE. AFTER AN ORIGINAL PAINTING
EXHIBITED AT THE PARIS SALON IN 1904 Miss Beatrice How,
Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL OF WATER-COLOUR, 1904
MAY EVENING
AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE
Mrs. E. Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
A COTTAGE GIRL. REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR
Miss Minnie Smythe, A.R.W.S., Painter]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIR CHARLES HOLROYD. REPRODUCED FROM
THE ORIGINAL PAINTING Lady Holroyd, Painter]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1880
THE END OF THE STORY. REPRODUCED FROM A COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH BY
PERMISSION OF BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS
Cornelia W. Conant, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1890
OPHELIA: "THERE'S RUE FOR YOU." REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF
THE ARTS COMMITTEE, THE WALKER ART GALLERY, LIVERPOOL
Mrs. E. Normand (Henrietta Rae), Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, 1897
"STEADY THE DRUMS AND FIFES!" FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL
PICTURE, BY KIND PERMISSION OF LADY ELIZABETH BUTLER AND OF
MESSRS. GOUPIL & CO., LONDON AND PARIS, PUBLISHERS OF THE LARGE
REPRODUCTION RECENTLY ISSUED
Lady Elizabeth Butler, Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
AFTER THE BULL-FIGHT
FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE
Miss Margaret Cameron, Painter]
[Illustration: WINTRY WEATHER AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE Lily
Blatherwick (Mrs. A. S. Hartrick), Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
A YORKSHIRE TROUT STREAM.
AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE
Miss Alice Fanner, Painter
PORTRAIT OF MISS ANNA ALMA-TADEMA. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
Miss Anna Alma-Tadema, Painter]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY
BABY'S TOILETTE. REPRODUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL PASTEL, BY
PERMISSION OF MESSRS. DURAND-RUEL & SONS, PARIS THE OWNERS OF
THE COPYRIGHT.
Miss Mary Cassatt, Pastellist and Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH SCHOOL, CONTEMPORARY
FROM THE ORIGINAL PEN-DRAWING
Miss Jessie M. King, Illustrator]
[Illustration: THE MUSIC LESSON Mrs. J. M. Swan, Painter PANEL
OF A SCREEN AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING Miss Amy Sawyer,
Painter]
[Illustration: BRITISH AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS, CONTEMPORARY.
OPHELIA. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTOTYPE CO., NEW OXFORD
STREET, LONDON
Miss Offor (Mrs. F. Littler), Painter, England.]
[Illustration: PRAYER. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PICTURE, FROM A
CARBON-PRINT PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS Mrs.
Cecilia Wentworth, Painter, U.S.A., America.]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY
THE PEACE BALL AFTER THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: THE FRENCH
OFFICERS, LAFAYETTE AND ROCHAMBEAU, BEING INTRODUCED TO
WASHINGTON'S MOTHER. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF C. KLACKNER,
HAYMARKET, LONDON
Miss Jennie Brownscombe, Painter]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY.
PORTRAIT. REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
KINDLY LENT BY THE ARTIST.
Miss Cecilia Beaux, Painter.]
[Illustration: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONTEMPORARY
THE BAMBOO FENCE. FROM A WOODCUT DESIGNED IN THE JAPANESE MANNER
AND PRINTED IN COLOURS BY JAPANESE WORKMEN. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF C. KLACKNER, NEW YORK, U.S.A., AND 12, HAYMARKET,
LONDON. DATE OF COPYRIGHT, 1904
Miss Helen Hyde, Designer]
[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, 1755-1842
Portrait of Madame Vigee Le Brun and her Daughter. After the
painting in the Louvre, from a Photograph by Braun, Clement &
Co., Paris
Madame Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun, Painter
1755-1842]
Of Women Painters in France
By Leonce Benedite. Translated into English by Edgar Preston
Woman in Art is a fruitful subject. It is both psychological and
aesthetic, involving as it does a question of paramount interest. At
the same time it includes a special up-to-date character, by virtue of
the grave questions arising from the position of woman in our social
system of to-day. It is, indeed, the position of woman which has for
so long a period set limits to her production of creations of the
mind, and her position has had a distinct bearing on her inspiration.
Thus it will be grasped, in these times of ours when the movement for
the total emancipation of woman has commenced, and when the first
franchises granted to her have already borne conclusive results, how
it is that our honoured colleague, the editor of this book, has been
led, both as an artist and as a writer on art, to conduct a sort of
historical examination enabling one to understand the position woman
has won in the realms of art in the past, and permitting one to
foresee the place she is called upon to occupy in the future.
With regard to the productions of the mind, it becomes necessary to
establish a well-defined distinction, at least in so far as the past,
anterior to the 19th century, is concerned, between the position of
women artists and that of literary women. The literary woman, like the
man of letters, was not subjected to any special obligation beyond the
official sanction granting her the privilege of publication--a
sanction which bore only on the question of morals and religion. Every
woman was free to write without let or hindrance, without any
preliminary education, and even without going through the formalities
of publication or the necessities of printing, since a famous woman
like Madame de Sevigne owed her celebrity to letters which were not
destined to be made public. This explains the number of charming
writers among women who have added lustre to French literature by
their novels, stories, or simply by their letters, and enables one to
realise how these women authors are, in contradistinction to women
artists, persons of high standing. The chronicles of the Hotel de
Rambouillet constitute an interesting little chapter in the history of
letters in France, just as the "Precieuses Ridicules" or the "Femmes
Savantes" of Moliere reveal to us the defects and eccentricities into
which the literary pretensions of the feminine world had fallen in the
17th century. It cannot, however, be denied that the fair sex freely
infused into the literature of that period spontaneity, life and
spirit, piquancy, affectation, and the delicate sentiments inherent to
its nature, and that it had its share of influence on French taste at
that time.
Altogether different is the position of their sisters, the
women-painters. Let us first look into that of the men. Painters
formerly were part of a Guild such as that of the Drapers, Bakers and
Butchers, and in their case it was a Guild which was far from
occupying the first place in the hierarchy of Guilds. The Butchers
were beyond doubt higher up in the scale than the painters. The
painters were subjected to narrow and despotic regulations; rigorous
conditions governed both apprenticeship and mastership, conditions
hardly encouraging to those who had a vocation, more especially in the
case of women, ill-protected by the weakness of their sex, by
prevalent custom, and ill-adapted for the struggle. The _regime_ of
the Academies, which followed that of the Guilds, did not bring in its
wake conditions in any degree profitable to womankind. The Academie de
Saint-Luc, while pretending to safeguard the professional interests of
artists, displayed such tyrannical pretensions that a certain number
of artists rose in revolt against it, and appealed to the Royal power,
which, approached by its chief painter, Charles Le Brun, came to their
rescue, by helping them to found the celebrated Academie Royale de
Peinture et de Sculpture (1666). The Academie Royale proved itself
somewhat more liberal. It set no limits to the reception of those who
seemed worthy of its suffrages; we know that it welcomed into its
bosom a number of strangers of merit, and that it opened its doors to
women. Therein lies a victory of appreciable importance, if one
considers the energy and the talent which women artists were compelled
to display, in order to conquer ancient prejudices in so signal a
fashion. Henceforth a place was assigned in art to women, a place
still hedged in with limitations, and which could be attained only by
the few privileged ones. For, in its turn, the Academie served the
purpose of a few, but not that of the many. The Academie reserved the
monopoly of exhibitions exclusively for its members; and artists who
did not, in one way or other, belong to this congregation, were
allowed to exhibit their works in public only once a year. It was on
the one day of the Octave of Corpus Christi, for a space of two hours,
in the open air, and within the circumference of the Place Dauphine.
All great artists had to submit to this treatment, ere they could
force the portals of the Academie. But times have changed! Our
contemporaries, so inconstant, so impatient, who wear out the
attention of the public by the excessive multiplicity of their
exhibitory manifestations, should occasionally think of the conditions
under which their forerunners laboured.
Imagine a woman placed in the midst of these quarrels and struggles of
rival Academies, with men in strong and often fierce antagonism on all
sides of her; picture not only these general difficulties, but those
of a more particular sort which arise from the disabilities of her
sex, her subordinate state; think of the drawbacks--the prejudices,
the _convenances_ to be considered, and then the embarrassing
promiscuity of life in studio and school, particularly as regards the
study from the living model--and one can realise how brave, how
energetic, or how ambitious must be the woman who would win the title
of Artist.
It is clear that the Royal Academy's liberal measure in opening its
doors to women of talent was an event of some importance, from the
moral point of view at any rate. It was the public recognition of
woman's capacity in matters of art, the official consecration of merit
which might come to light; also it afforded a goal to strive for--a
goal hard to reach and very remote, doubtless, but still a goal
possible of attainment to the most courageous and the most hopeful
among women. The real, as distinct from the moral, advantages were,
however, rather limited. From 1663, the date which marks the admission
of the first woman artist, to 1783, when the last was admitted--that
is to say during a period of eighty years--exactly fifteen women
painters were elected, and among them were three foreigners. In 1770,
indeed, on the nomination of Mlle. Giroust, wife of Roslin, the
painter, it was decided that, as there were already in the company two
other women previously elected, there must not be more than four women
in all within the Academy. This measure of restriction was renewed in
1783 and ratified by Royal ordinance on the election of Mme. Vigee Le
Brun.
Nevertheless there was an appreciable number of women artists in
France throughout the course of the 18th century. Their social rank
was strictly confined. There were no "women of quality," such as were
to be found in the world of letters, no representatives of the
_bourgeoisie_ even. The women artists, with very rare exceptions, all
belonged to artist families. They were the wives, the daughters, the
sisters or the nieces of artists, and this tradition, as we shall see,
even continued long into the 19th century. Catherine Duchemin, the
first woman elected to the Academy, was the wife of the sculptor,
Girardon, while Genevieve and Madelaine Boulogne, both academicians,
were related to distinguished painters of that name. Mlle. Reboul was
Mme. Vien, and Mme. Labille des Vertus became Mme. Vincent on her
second marriage. Then we have Mlle. Natoire, sister of the director of
the Academy of France, Catherine van Loo, one of the innumerable
family of Van Loo, Mme. de Valsaureaux, _nee_ Parrocel, of the no less
numerous family of Parrocel, Mme. Therbouch, _nee_ Liscewska, all this
family, father, mother, and daughters alike, being painters; and Mme.
Vigee herself, who married the picture dealer Le Brun, was the
daughter of a portrait painter.
During the 17th and 18th centuries these great artist families
intermarried to such an extent as to form a series of veritable
dynasties--for instance, those of the Coypels, the Coustous, the Van
Loos, the Boulognes, the Parrocels, and the Vernets, to name but a few
of the most renowned. Artist families became allied just as do those
of lawyers and merchants. Thus their social life grew more limited,
each category more and more distinct and apart, for these artist
families rarely strayed beyond their own _milieu_. And those very
circumstances which tended to retard the development of the artistic
calling in woman exerted their influence over the inspiration of the
female artist. The impossibility of pursuing very far the study of
anatomical drawing, owing to the nudity of the model, diverted them
almost entirely to the studies of observation and of imitation, to
portrait work, and flowers and animals and still-life. Later, when
they obtained greater liberty, they devoted themselves to _genre_ of a
size and kind demanding less substantial preparation. But as for
composition, they never touched "history," as it was termed--that is,
lofty, heroic or allegorical subjects--and if there should chance to
have been any exception to this rule, it was simply in the direction
of religious _motifs_.
[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, ABOUT 1793-1824
Portrait of Gaetano Apollino Baldassare Vestris, Dancer
(1729-1808). Reproduced from a Photograph by permission of
Braun, Clement & Co., Paris
Madame Adele Romany, nee de Romance, Painter
exhibited from 1793 to 1824]
Further, they long affected what may be called medium processes:
pastel, water-colour, miniature, all kinds of work offering
opportunity of finish and _eclat_. They showed a partiality for oil
painting after the manner of the smaller Dutch masters, who had no
more faithful imitators in all France. Mme. Vien, Mme. de Valsaureaux,
_nee_ Parrocel, and particularly Mme. Vallayer Coster--"_femme qui fut
un habile homme_," according to the verses written in her
honour--excelled in this style.
Some of the "_Academistes_"--to use the old French expression--won
real celebrity, but few there were who achieved lasting glory. In the
reign of Louis XIV, the woman artist whose reputation shone with the
clearest lustre was Elisabeth Sophie Cheron, who excelled in all the
arts--for she was a clever painter, a consummate musician, a poet of
merit and _femme d'esprit_ into the bargain. Following the general
rule she belonged to one of the numerous artist families. Daughter of
a painter (Louis Cheron), she was also sister of a painter. This
latter, who was her junior, had talent, but not to the extent of the
elder. Elisabeth Sophie Cheron was of Huguenot family, as was
frequently the case among the Academicians, although, from what absurd
prejudice I know not, the _reformes_ were regarded as less artistic
than other folk. But in 1668,--she was twenty then--terrified no doubt
by the ever-increasing persecution of the Protestants--a persecution
which was soon to result in the Edict of Nantes--she, like her sister,
abjured her faith, whereas her brother, remaining true to the family
faith, was forced to take refuge in London, where he died.[1]
[1] Several Academiciens of the reformed religion were excluded, or
obliged to submit to the Catholic religion.
Sophie translated into French the Psalms of David, which her brother
illustrated admirably, and she has left at least one important
engraved work, but above all, she has left a number of portraits of
well-known people of her time, portraits that the sitters made her
copy four and even five times.
Among other "_Academistes_," interesting if not so well known, was
that sister of the "_Visitandine_" order, Anne Marie Tresor, who
decorated with religious subjects the church of the monastery of the
"Dames de Ste. Marie de Chaillot." She was received by the Academy in
1676, and the choice of the Academy showed, as its accepted members
were of such different views, that the body was after all somewhat
broad in character. Another proof of this liberal spirit is to be
found in the fact that the Academy received foreign artists within its
body. There were three of them; the first was Mlle. Haverman, of Dutch
origin, who was, however, excluded shortly after her election--she
attempted to justify her election by sending in a painting which was
not her own, but the work of her master, Van Huysum. The second
foreign "_Academiste_" was specially illustrious and worthy of the
honour conferred on her. She was Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian, a woman
who was really original, and whose reputation has lived through the
centuries, but about whom, in this chapter devoted to France, I must
not speak at length. The last of the three was Mme. Terbouche, or,
more exactly, Therbousch, who, although born in 1728 at Berlin, was
numbered by our old museum catalogues in the ranks of the French
School.