Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 14

COMERRE-PATON, MME. JACQUELINE. Honorable mention, 1881; medal at Versailles; officer of the Academy. Born at Paris, 1859. Pupil of Cabanel. Her princ.i.p.al works are: "Peau d'Ane, Hollandaise," in the Museum of Lille; "Song of the Wood," Museum of Morlaix; "Mignon,"

portrait of Mlle. Ugalde; the "Haymaker," etc.

COOKESLEY, MARGARET MURRAY. Decorated by the Sultan of Turkey with the Order of the Chefakat, and with the Medaille des Beaux Arts, also a Turkish honor. Medal for the "Lion Tamers in the Time of Nero." Member of the Empress Club. Born in Dorsets.h.i.+re. Studied in Brussels under Leroy and Gallais, and spent a year at South Kensington in the study of anatomy. Mrs. Cookesley has lived in Newfoundland and in San Francisco. A visit to Constantinople brought her a commission to paint a portrait of the son of the Sultan. No sittings were accorded her, the Sultan thinking a photograph sufficient for the artist to work from. Fortunately Mrs. Cookesley was able to make a sketch of her subject while following the royal carriage in which he was riding. The portrait proved so satisfactory to the Sultan that he not only decorated the artist, but invited her to make portraits of some of his wives, for which Mrs.

Cookesley had not time. Her pictures of Oriental subjects have been successful. Among these are: "An Arab Cafe in the Slums of Cairo," much noticed in the Academy Exhibition of 1895; "Noon at Ramazan," "The Snake-Charmer," "Umbrellas to Mend--Damascus," and a group of the "Soudanese Friends of Gordon." Her "Priestess of Isis" is owned in Cairo.

Among her pictures of Western subjects are "The Puritan's Daughter,"

"Deliver Us from Evil," "The Gambler's Wife." "Widowed" and "Miss Calhoun as Salome" were purchased by Maclean, of the Haymarket Theatre; "Death of the First-Born" is owned in Russia; and "Portrait of Ellen Terry as Imogen" is in a private collection.

"Lion Tamers in the Time of Nero" is one of her important pictures of animals, of which she has made many sketches.

COOPER, EMMA LAMPERT. Awarded medal at World's Columbian Exposition, 1893; bronze medal, Atlanta Exposition, 1895. Member of Water-Color Club and Woman's Art Club, New York; Water-Color Club and Plastic Club, Philadelphia; Woman's Art a.s.sociation, Canada; Women's International Art Club, London.

Born in Nunda, N. Y. Studied under Agnes D. Abbatt at Cooper Union and at the Art Students' League, New York; in Paris under Harry Thompson and at Delecluse and Colarossi Academies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CANADIAN INTERIOR

EMMA LAMPERT COOPER]

Mrs. Cooper's work is princ.i.p.ally in water-colors. After several years abroad, in the spring of 1903 she exhibited twenty-two pictures, princ.i.p.ally of Dutch interiors, with some sketches in English towns, which last, being more unusual, were thought her best work. Her picture, "Mother Claudius," is in the collection of Walter J. Peck, New York; "High Noon at Cape Ann" is owned by W. B. Lockwood, New York; and a "Holland Interior" by Dr. Gessler, Philadelphia. Of her recent exhibition a critic writes: "The pictures are notable for their careful attention to detail of drawing. Architectural features of the rich old Gothic churches are faithfully indicated instead of blurred, and the treatment is almost devotional in tone, so sympathetic is the quality of the work. There is a total absence of the garish coloring which has become so common, the religious subjects being without exception in a minor key, usually soft grays and blues. It is indeed in composition and careful drawing that this artist excels rather than in coloring, although this afterthought is suggested by the canva.s.ses treating of secular subjects."--_Brooklyn Standard Union_.

CORAZZI, GIULITTA. Born at Fivizzano, 1866. Went to Florence when still a child and early began to study art. She took a diploma at the Academy in 1886, having been a pupil of Ca.s.sioli. She is a portrait painter, and among her best works are the portraits of the Counts Francesco and Ottorino Tenderini, Giuseppe Erede, and Raffaello Morvanti. Her pictures of flowers are full of freshness and spirit and delightful in color. Since 1885 she has spent much time in teaching in the public schools and other inst.i.tutions and in private families.

CORRELLI, CLEMENTINA. Member of the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, in Naples. Born in Lesso, 1840. This artist is both a painter and a sculptor. Pupil of Biagio Molinari, she supplemented his instructions by constant visits to galleries and museums, where she could study masterpieces of art. A statue called "The Undeceived" and a group, "The Task," did much to establish her reputation. They were exhibited in Naples, Milan, and Verona, and aroused widespread interest.

Her pictures are numerous. Among them are "St. Louis," "Sappho,"

"Petrarch and Laura," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert," "A Devotee of the Virgin," exhibited at Turin in 1884; a series ill.u.s.trating the "Seasons," and four others representing the arts.

COSWAY, MARIA. The artist known by this name was born Maria Hadfield, the daughter of an Englishman who acquired a fortune as a hotel-keeper in Leghorn, which was Maria's birthplace. She was educated in a convent, and early manifesting unusual artistic ability, was sent to Rome to study painting. Her friends there, among whom were Battoni, Raphael Mengs, and Fuseli, found much to admire and praise in her art.

After her father's death Maria ardently desired to become a nun, but her mother persuaded her to go to England. Here she came under the influence of Angelica Kauffman, and devoted herself a.s.siduously to painting.

She married Richard Cosway, an eminent painter of miniatures in water-colors. Cosway was a man of fortune with a good position in the fas.h.i.+onable circles of London. For a time after their marriage Maria lived in seclusion, her husband wis.h.i.+ng her to acquire the dignity and grace requisite for success in the society which he frequented. Meantime she continued to paint in miniature, and her pictures attracted much attention in the Academy exhibitions.

When at length Cosway introduced her to the London world, she was greatly admired; her receptions were crowded, and the most eminent people sat to her for their portraits. Her picture of the d.u.c.h.ess of Devons.h.i.+re in the character of Spenser's Cynthia was very much praised. Cosway did not permit her to be paid for her work, and as a consequence many costly gifts were made her in return for her miniatures, which were regarded as veritable treasures by their possessors.

Maria Cosway had a delicious voice in singing, which, in addition to her other talent, her beauty, and grace, made her unusually popular in society, and her house was a centre for all who had any pretensions to a place in the best circles. Poets, authors, orators, lords, ladies, diplomats, as well as the Prince of Wales, were to be seen in her drawing-rooms. A larger house was soon required for the Cosways, and the description of it in "Nollekens and His Times" is interesting:

"Many of the rooms were more like scenes of enchantment pencilled by a poet's fancy, than anything perhaps before displayed in a domestic habitation. Escritoires of ebony, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and rich caskets for antique gems, exquisitely enamelled and adorned with onyx, opals, rubies, and emeralds; cabinets of ivory, curiously wrought; mosaic tables, set with jasper, blood-stone, and lapis-lazuli, their feet carved into the claws of lions and eagles; screens of old raised Oriental j.a.pan; ma.s.sive musical clocks, richly chased with ormulu and tortoise-sh.e.l.l; ottomans superbly damasked; Persian and other carpets, with corresponding hearth-rugs bordered with ancient family crests and armorial ensigns in the centre, and rich hangings of English tapestry. The carved chimney-pieces were adorned with the choicest bronzes and models in wax and terra-cotta. The tables were covered with Sevres, blue Mandarin, Nankin, and Dresden china, and the cabinets were surmounted with crystal cups, adorned with the York and Lancaster roses, which might have graced the splendid banquets of the proud Wolsey."

In the midst of all this fatiguing luxury, Maria Cosway lost her health and pa.s.sed several years travelling in Europe. Returning to London, she was again prostrated by the death of her only daughter. She then went to Lodi, near Milan, where she founded a college for the education of girls.

She spent much time in Lodi, and after the death of her husband established herself there permanently. A goodly circle of friends gathered about her, and she found occupation and solace for her griefs in the oversight of her college.

She continued her painting and the exhibition of her pictures at the Royal Academy. She made ill.u.s.trations for the works of Virgil, Homer, Spenser, and other poets, and painted portraits of interesting and distinguished persons, among whom were Mme. Le Brun and Mme. Recamier.

The life and work of Maria Cosway afford a striking contradiction of the theory that wealth and luxury induce idleness and dull the powers of their possessors. Hers is but one of the many cases in which a woman's a woman "for a' that."

At an art sale in London in 1901, an engraving by V. Green after Mrs.

Cosway's portrait of herself, first state, brought $1,300, and a second one $200 less.

COUDERT, AMALIA KuSSNER. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana. This distinguished miniaturist writes me that she "never studied." Like Topsy, she must have "growed." By whatever method they are produced or by whatever means the artist in her has been evolved, her pictures would seem to prove that study of a most intelligent order has done its part in her development.

She has executed miniature portraits of the Czar and Czarina of Russia, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Vladimir, King Edward VII., the late Cecil Rhodes, many English ladies of rank, and a great number of the beautiful and fas.h.i.+onable women of America.

COUTAN-MONTORGUEIL, MME. LAURE MARTIN. Honorable mention, Salon des Artistes Francais, 1894. Born at Dun-sur-Auron, Cher. Pupil of Alfred Boucher.

This sculptor has executed the monument to Andre Gill, Pere Lachaise; that of the Poet Moreau, in the cemetery Montparna.s.se; bust of Taglioni, in the foyer of the Grand Opera House, Paris; bust of the astronomer Leverrier, at the Inst.i.tute, Paris; a statue, "The Spring," Museum of Bourges; "Sirius," in the Palais of the Governor of Algiers. Also busts of Prince Napoleon, General Boulanger, the Countess de Choiseul, the Countess de Vogue, and numerous statuettes and other compositions.

At the Salon, Artistes Francais, 1903, she exhibited "Fortune" and "A Statuette."

COWLES, GENEVIEVE ALMEDA. Member of the Woman's Art Club, New York; Club of Women Art Workers, New York; and the Paint and Clay Club of New Haven. Born in Farmington, Connecticut, 1871. Pupil of Robert Brandagee; of the Cowles Art School, Boston; and of Professor Niemeyer at the Yale Art School.

Together with her twin sister, Maud, this artist has ill.u.s.trated various magazine articles. Also several books, among which are "The House of the Seven Gables," "Old Virginia," etc.

Miss G. A. Cowles designed a memorial window and a decorative border for the chancel of St. Michael's Church, Brooklyn. Together with her sister, she designed a window in the memory of the Deaconess, Miss Stillman, in Grace Church, New York City. These sisters now execute many windows and other decorative work for churches, and also superintend the making and placing of the windows.

Regarding their work in the Chapel of Christ Church, New Haven, Miss Genevieve Cowles writes me: "These express the Prayer of the Prisoner, the Prayer of the Soul in Darkness, and the Prayer of Old Age. These are paintings of states of the soul and of deep emotions. The paintings are records of human lives and not mere imagination. We study our characters directly from life."

These artists are now, November, 1903, engaged upon a landscape frieze for a dining-room in a house at Watch Hill.

Miss Genevieve Cowles writes: "We feel that we are only at the beginning of our life-work, which is to be chiefly in mural decoration and stained gla.s.s. I desire especially to work for prisons, hospitals, and asylums--for those whose great need of beauty seems often to be forgotten."

COWLES, MAUD ALICE. Twin sister of Genevieve Cowles. Bronze medal at Paris Exposition, 1900, and a medal at Buffalo, 1901. Her studies were the same as her sister's, and she is a member of the same societies.

Indeed, what has been said above is equally true of the two sisters, as they usually work on the same windows and decorations, dividing the designing and execution between them.

c.o.x, LOUISE--MRS. KENYON c.o.x. Third Hallgarten prize, National Academy of Design; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; silver medal at Buffalo, 1901; medal at Charleston, 1902; Shaw Memorial prize, Society of American Artists, 1903. Member of Society of American Artists, and an a.s.sociate of the Academy of Design. Born at San Francisco, 1865. Studies made at Academy of Design, Art Students' League, under C. Turner, George de Forest Brush, and Kenyon c.o.x.

Mrs. c.o.x paints small decorative pictures and portraits, mostly of children. The Shaw prize was awarded to a child's portrait, called "Olive." Among other subjects she has painted an "Annunciation," the "Fates," and "Angiola," reproduced in this book.