Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 4

This artist has also executed numerous decorations for ceilings and decorative panels for private houses. Her picture of "Breakfast in the Conservatory" is in the Museum of Pau.

Mme. Abbema ill.u.s.trated "La Mer," by Maizeroy, and has contributed to the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ and several other Parisian publications.

At the Salon of the Artistes Francais, 1902, she exhibited the "Portrait of Pierre," and in 1903 a portrait of the Countess P. S.

Mme. Abbema wears her hair short, and affects such absolute simplicity in her costume that at first sight she reminds one of a charming young man.

In no other direction, however, is there a masculine touch about this delightful artist. She has feminine grace, a love for poetry, a pa.s.sion for flowers, which she often introduces in her pictures; she has, in short, a truly womanly character, which appears in the refinement and attractiveness of her work.

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ABBOTT, KATHERINE G. Bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; honorable mention, Buffalo Exposition, 1901.

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ACHILLE-FOULD, MLLE. GEORGES. Medal, third cla.s.s, Versailles, 1888; honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1894; medal, third cla.s.s, 1895; medal, second cla.s.s, 1897; Hors Concours; bronze medal at Paris Exposition, 1900. Officer of Public Instruction; member of the Societe des Artistes Francais. Born at Asnieres (Seine). Pupil of Cabanel, Antoine Vollon, and Leon Comerre.

A painter of figure subjects and portraits. Several of her works are in private collections in the United States. Among these are the "Flower-Seller," the "Knife-Grinder," "M. de Richelieu's Love Knots,"

exhibited in the Salon of 1902, and "Going to School."

"The Dull Season" is in London; "Cinderella" and many others in Paris.

This artist, when still in short skirts, sent her first picture, "In the Market Place," to the Salon of 1884. She is most industrious, and her history, as she herself insists, is in her pictures. She has been surrounded by a sympathetic and artistic atmosphere. Her mother was an art critic, who, before her second marriage to Prince Stirberg, signed her articles Gustave Haller. Her home, the Chateau de Becon, is an ideal home for an artist, and one can well understand her distaste for realism and the professional model.

"M. de Richelieu's Love Knots" is very attractive and was one of the successes of 1902. He is a fine gentleman to whom a bevy of young girls is devoted, tying his ribbons, and evidently admiring him and his exquisite costume. The girls are smiling and much amused, while the young man has an air of immense satisfaction.

At the Salon of 1903 Mlle. Fould exhibited "La Chatouilleuse"--Tickling--and "Nasturtiums." The first shows a young woman seated, wearing a decollete gown, while a mischievous companion steals up behind and tickles her neck with a twig. It is less attractive than many of this artist's pictures.

In 1890 Mlle. Fould painted a portrait of her stepfather, and for a time devoted herself to portraits rather than to the subjects she had before studied with such success. In 1893 she painted a portrait of Rosa Bonheur, in her studio, while the latter paused from her work on a large picture of lions. This portrait presents the great animal painter in a calm, thoughtful mood, in the midst of her studio, surrounded by sketches and all the accessories of her work. In the opinion of many who knew the great artist most intimately this is the best portrait of her in existence.

Mlle. Fould, at different periods, has painted legendary subjects, at other times religious pictures, but in my judgment the last were the least successful of her works.

Her "Cinderella" is delightful; the two "Merry Wives of Windsor," sitting on the basket in which Falstaff is hidden, and from which he is pus.h.i.+ng out a hand, is an excellent ill.u.s.tration of this ever-amusing story, and, indeed, all her pictures of this cla.s.s may well be praised.

To the Exposition of 1900 she sent an allegorical picture, called "The Gold Mine." A young woman in gold drapery drops gold coins from her hands. In the background is the entrance to a mine, lighted dimly by a miner's lamp, while a pickaxe lies at the feet of the woman; this picture was accorded a bronze medal.

ADAM, MME. NANNY. First prize from the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors, Paris. Medal from the Salon des Artistes Francais, and "honors in many other cities." Member of the Societe des Artistes Francais. Born at Crest (Drome). Her studies were made under Jean Paul Laurens. Her pictures called "Calme du Soir" and "Le Soir aux Martignes" are in private collections. "Les Remparts de la Ville Close, Concarneau,"

exhibited at the Salon Artistes Francais in 1902, was purchased by the French Government. In 1903 she exhibited "June Twilight, Venice," and "Morning Fog, Holland."

ADELSPARRE, SOPHIE ALBERTINE. Born in Oland 1808-62. In Stockholm she received instruction from the sculptor Ovarnstrom and the painter Ekman; after her father's death she went to Paris and entered the atelier of Cogniet, and later did some work under the direction of her countrymen Wickenberg and Wahlbom. She had, at this time, already made herself known through her copies of some of the Italian masters and Murillo. Her copy of the Sistine Madonna was placed by Queen Josephine in the Catholic church at Christiania. After her return from Dresden where she went from Paris, she painted portraits of King Oscar and Queen Josephine. In 1851, having received a government scholars.h.i.+p, she went to Munich, Bologna, and Florence, and lived three years and a half in Rome, where she was a.s.sociated with Fogelberg, Overbeck, and Schnetz, and became a Catholic.

During this time she copied Raphael's "Transfiguration," now in the Catholic church at Stockholm, and painted from life a portrait of Pius IX. for the castle at Drottningholm. She also painted a "Roman Dancing Girl" and a "Beggar Girl of Terracina."

AHRENS, ELLEN WETHERALD. Second Toppan prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Second prize and silver medal, Carnegie Inst.i.tute, Pittsburg, 1902. Member of the Pennsylvania Academy, the Plastic Club, and the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters. Born in Baltimore.

Studied at Boston Museum of Fine Arts under Grundmann, Champney, and Stone; Pennsylvania Academy under Thomas Eakins; Drexel Inst.i.tute under Howard Pyle.

Many of her portraits are in private hands. That called "Sewing," a prize picture, will be in the St. Louis Exhibition. Her portrait of Mr. Ellwood Johnson is in the Pennsylvania Academy. That of Mary Ballard--a miniature--was solicited for exhibition by the Copley Society, Boston.

Miss Ahrens is also favorably known as a designer for stained-gla.s.s windows.

ALCOTT, MAY--MME. NIERIKER. Born in Concord, Ma.s.sachusetts, 1840-79.

A sister of the well-known author, Louisa M. Alcott. This artist studied in the Boston School of Design, in Krug's Studio, Paris, and under Muller. She made wonderful copies of Turner's pictures, both in oil and water colors, which were greatly praised by Ruskin and were used in the South Kensington Art Schools for the pupils to copy. Her still-life and flower pictures are in private collections and much valued.

She exhibited at the Paris Salon and in the Dudley Gallery, London, and, student as she still was, her works were approved by art critics on both sides of the Atlantic, and a brilliant future as an artist was foretold for her. Her married life was short, and her death sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends, as well as by the members of her profession who appreciated her artistic genius and her enthusiasm for her work.

ALEXANDER, FRANCESCA. Born in Florence, Italy. Daughter of the portrait painter, Francis Alexander. Her pen-and-ink drawing is her best work. The exquisite conceits in her ill.u.s.trations were charmingly rendered by the delicacy of her work. She thus ill.u.s.trated an unpublished Italian legend, writing the text also.

Mr. Ruskin edited her "Story of Ida" and brought out "Roadside Songs of Tuscany," collected, translated, and ill.u.s.trated by this artist. A larger collection of these songs, with ill.u.s.trations, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., ent.i.tled "Tuscan Songs."

ALIPPI-FABRETTI, QUIRINA. Silver medal at Perugia in 1879; honorary member of the Royal Academy in Urbino and of the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia. Born in Urbino, 1849. She was the daughter of the jurisconsult Luigi Alippi. She studied drawing and painting in Rome with Ortis and De Sanctis. Following her father to Perugia in 1874, whither he had been called to the Court of Appeals, she continued her study under Moretti.

She married Ferdinando Fabretti in 1877. She made admirable copies of some of the best pictures in Perugia, notably Perugino's "Presepio" for a church in Mount Lebanon, Syria. She was also commissioned to paint an altar-piece, representing St. Stephen, for the same church. Her interiors are admirable. She exhibited an "Interior of the Great Hall of the Exchange of Perugia" in 1884, at Turin. She painted two interior views of the church of San Giovanni del Cambio in Perugia, and an interior of the vestibule of the Confraternity of St. Francis. Her other works, besides portraits, include an "Odalisk," an "Old Woman Fortune-teller," and a "St. Catherine."

ALLINGHAM, HELEN. Honorable mention at Paris Exhibition, 1900; silver medal from Brussels Exhibition, 1901; bronze medal from the Columbian Exhibition, Chicago. Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colors, London. Born near Burton-on-Trent, 1848. Began the study of art at fourteen, in Birmingham School of Art, where she remained about five years, when she entered the schools of the Royal Academy, where instruction is given by the Royal Academicians in turn. In 1868 she went to Italy.

Her first exhibition at the Royal Academy occurred in 1874, under the name Helen Patterson; her pictures were "Wait for Me" and "The Milkmaid."

Since that time Mrs. Allingham has constantly exhibited at the Academy and many other exhibitions.

Her pictures are of genre subjects, chiefly from English rural life and landscapes. She has also been successful as an ill.u.s.trator for the _Graphic_, the _Cornhill Magazine_, and other publications. Her water-color portraits of Carlyle in his later years are well known. She introduced his cat "Tib" into a portrait taken in his Chelsea garden.

Among her most ambitious works are the "Young Customers," the "Old Men's Garden, Chelsea Hospital," the "Lady of the Manor," "Confidences,"

"London Flowers," and others of kindred motives.

The "Young Customers," water-color, was exhibited at Paris in 1878. When seen at the Academy in 1875, Ruskin wrote of it: "It happens curiously that the only drawing of which the memory remains with me as a possession out of the Old Water-Color Exhibition of this year--Mrs. Allingham's 'Young Customers'--should be not only by an accomplished designer of woodcuts, but itself the ill.u.s.tration of a popular story. The drawing with whatever temporary purpose executed, is forever lovely; a thing which I believe Gainsborough would have given one of his own paintings for--old-fas.h.i.+oned as red-tipped dresses are, and more precious than rubies."--_Notes of the Academy_, 1875.

ALMA-TADEMA, LADY LAURA THERESE. Gold medal at International Art Exhibition, Berlin, 1876; medal at Chicago, 1893; second-cla.s.s medal at Paris Exhibition, 1900. Born in London. From early childhood this artist was fond of drawing and had the usual drawing-cla.s.s lessons at school and also drew from the antique in the British Museum. Her serious study, however, began at the age of eighteen, under the direction of Laurenz Alma-Tadema.

Her pictures are princ.i.p.ally of domestic scenes, child-life, and other genre subjects. "Battledore and Shuttlec.o.c.k" is an interior, with a graceful girl playing the game, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of a young child sitting on a nurse's lap. The room is attractive, the accessories well painted, and a second girl just coming through the door and turning her eyes up to the shuttlec.o.c.k is an interesting figure.

Of quite a different character is the picture called "In Winter." The landscape is very attractive. In a sled, well wrapped up, is a little girl, with a doll on her lap; the older boy--brother?--who pushes the sled from behind, leaning over the child, does his part with a will, and the dignified and serious expression on the face of the little girl in the sled indicates her sense of responsibility in the care of the doll as well as a feeling of deep satisfaction in her enjoyable outing.

Among the more important pictures by Lady Alma-Tadema are "Hush-a-Bye,"