Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 41

ROBINSON, MRS. IMOGENE MORRELL. Medals at the Mechanics' Fair, Boston, and at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. Born in Attleborough, Ma.s.sachusetts. Pupil of Camphausen in Dusseldorf, and of Couture in Paris, where she resided several years. Among her important works are "The First Battle between the Puritans and Indians" and "Was.h.i.+ngton and His Staff Welcoming a Provision Train," both at Philadelphia. Mrs. Morrell continued to sign her pictures with her maiden name, Imogene Robinson.

A critic of the New York _Evening Post_ said of her pictures at Philadelphia: "In the painting of the horses Mrs. Morrell has shown great knowledge of their action, and their finish is superb. The work is painted with great strength throughout, and its solidity and forcible treatment will be admired by all who take an interest in Revolutionary history.... In the drawing of the figures of Standish and the chief at his side, and the dead and dying savages, there is a fine display of artistic power, and the grouping of the figures is masterly.... In color the works are exceedingly brilliant."

ROBUSTI, MARIETTA. Born in Venice. 1560-1590. The parentage of this artist would seem to promise her talent and insure its culture. She was the daughter of Jacopo Robusti, better known as "Il Tintoretto," who has been called "the thunder of art," and who avowed his ambition to equal "the drawing of Michael Angelo and the coloring of t.i.tian."

The portrait of Marietta Robusti proves her to have been justly celebrated for her beauty. Her face is sweet and gentle in expression.

She was sprightly in manner and full of enthusiasm for anything that interested and attracted her; she had a good talent for music and a charming voice in singing.

Her father's fondness for her made him desire her constant companions.h.i.+p, and at times he permitted her to dress as a boy and share with him certain studies that she could only have made in this disguise.

Tintoretto carefully cultivated the talents of his daughter, and some of the portraits she painted did her honor. That of Marco dei Vescovi first turned public attention to her artistic merits. The beard was especially praised and it was even said by good judges that she equalled her father.

Indeed, her works were so enthusiastically esteemed by some critics that it is difficult to make a just estimate of her as an artist, but we are a.s.sured of her exquisite taste in the arrangement of her pictures and of the rare excellence of her coloring.

It soon became the fas.h.i.+on in the aristocratic circles of Venice to sit for portraits to this fascinating artist. Her likeness of Jacopo Strada, the antiquarian, was considered a worthy gift for the Emperor Maximilian, and a portrait of Marietta was hung in the chamber of his Majesty.

Maximilian, Philip II. of Spain, and the Archduke Ferdinand, each in turn invited Marietta to be the painter of his Court.

Tintoretto could not be induced to be separated from his daughter, and the honors she received so alarmed him that he hastened to marry her to Mario Augusti, a wealthy German jeweller, upon the condition that she should remain at home.

But the Monarch who asks no consent and heeds no refusal claimed this daughter so beloved. She died at thirty, and it is recorded that both her father and her husband mourned for her so long as they lived. Marietta was buried in the Church of Santa Maria dell' Orto, where, within sight of her tomb, are several of her father's pictures.

Tintoretto painting his daughter's portrait after her death has been the subject of pictures by artists of various countries, and has lost nothing of its poetic and pathetic interest in the three centuries and more that have elapsed since that day when the brave old artist painted the likeness of all that remained to him of his idolized child.

ROCCHI, LINDA. Born in Florence; she resides in Geneva. Two of her flower pieces, in water-color, were seen at the Fine Arts Exposition, Milan, 1881. In 1883, also in Milan, she exhibited "A Wedding Garland,"

"Hawthorne," etc. The constantly increasing brilliancy of her work was shown in three pictures, flowers in water-colors, seen at the Milan Exposition, 1886. To Vienna, 1887, she sent four pictures of wild flowers, which were much admired.

ROCCO, LILI ROSALIA. Honorable mention, a bronze medal, and four silver medals were accorded this artist at the Inst.i.tute of Fine Arts in Naples, where she studied from 1880 to 1886, and was also a pupil of Solari. Born in Mazzara del Vallo, Sicily, 1863. In 1886 she exhibited, at Naples, "Cari Fiori!" at Palermo, "Flora"; and in Rome, "A Sicilian Contadina." In 1888 her picture, "Spring," was exhibited in London. Two of her works were in the Simonetti Exposition, 1889, one being a marine view from her birthplace. She has painted many portraits, both in oils and water-colors, and has been appointed a teacher in at least two Government schools in Naples.

RODIANA, ONORATA. Was a contemporary of the saintly Caterina de Vigri, but was of quite another order of women. She had one quality which, if not always attractive, at least commands attention. She was unique, since we know of no other woman who was at the same time a successful artist and a valiant soldier!

Born in Castelleone, near Cremona, early in the fifteenth century, she was known as a reputable artist while still young, and was commissioned to decorate the palace of the tyrant, Gabrino Fondolo, at Cremona. The girlish painter was beautiful in person, frank and engaging in manner, and most attractive to the gentlemen of the tyrant's court.

One day when alone and absorbed in the execution of a wall-painting, a dissolute young n.o.ble addressed her with insulting freedom. She could not escape, and in the struggle which ensued she drew a dagger and stabbed her a.s.sailant to the heart.

Rus.h.i.+ng from the palace, she disguised herself in male attire and fled to the mountains, where she joined a company of Condottieri. She soon became so good a soldier that she was made an officer of the band.

Fondolo raged as tyrants are wont to do, both on account of the murder and of the escape. He vowed the direst vengeance on Onorata if ever she were again in his power. Later, when his anger had cooled and he had no other artist at command who could worthily complete her decorations, he published her pardon and summoned her to return to his service.

Onorata completed her work, but her new vocation held her with a potent spell, and henceforth she led a divided life--never entirely relinquis.h.i.+ng her brush, and remaining always a soldier.

When Castelleone was besieged by the Venetians, Onorata led her band thither and was victorious in the defence of her birthplace. She was fatally wounded in this action and died soon after, in the midst of the men and women whose homes she had saved. They loved her for her bravery and deeply mourned the sacrifice of her life.

Few stories from real life are so interesting and romantic as this, yet little notice has been taken of Onorata's talent or of her prowess, while many less spirited and unusual lives have been commemorated in prose and poetry.

RODRIGUEZ DE TORO, LUISA. Honorable mention, Madrid, 1856, for a picture of "Queen Isabel the Catholic Reading with Dona Beatriz de Galindo"; honorable mention, 1860, for her "Boabdil Returning from Prison."

Born in Madrid; a descendant of the Counts of Los Villares, and wife of the Count of Mirasol. Pupil of Carlos Ribera.

RONNER, MME. HENRIETTE. Medals and honorable mentions and elections to academies have been showered on Mme. Ronner all over Europe. The King of Belgium decorated her with the Cross of the Order of Leopold. Born in Amsterdam in 1821. The grandfather of this artist was Nicolas Frederick Knip, a flower painter; her father, Josephus Augustus Knip, a landscape painter, went blind, and after this misfortune was the teacher of his daughter; her aunt, for whom she was named, received medals in Paris and Amsterdam for her flower pictures. What could Henriette Knip do except paint pictures? Hers was a clear case of predestination!

At all events, almost from babyhood she occupied herself with her pencil, and when she was twelve years old her blind father began to teach her.

Even at six years of age it was plainly seen that she would be a painter of animals. When sixteen she exhibited a "Cat in a Window," and from that time was considered a reputable artist.

In 1850 she was married and settled in Brussels. From this time for fifteen years she painted dogs almost without exception. Her picture called "Friend of Man" was exhibited in 1850. It is her most famous work and represents an old sand-seller, whose dog, still harnessed to the little sand-wagon, is dying, while two other dogs are looking on with well-defined sympathy. It is a most pathetic scene, wonderfully rendered.

About 1870 she devoted herself to pictures of cats, in which specialty of art she has been most important. In 1876, however, she sent to the Philadelphia Exposition a picture of "Setter Dogs." "A Cart Drawn by Dogs" is in the Museum at Hanover; "Dog and Pigeon," in the Stettin Museum; "Coming from Market" is in a private collection in San Francisco.

Mme. Ronner has invented a method of posing cats that is ingenious and of great advantage. To the uninitiated it would seem that one could only take the portrait of a sleeping cat, so untiring are the little beasts in their gymnastic performances. But Mme. Ronner, having studied them with infinite patience, proceeded to arrange a gla.s.s box, in which, on a comfortable cus.h.i.+on, she persuades her cats to a.s.sume the positions she desires. This box is enclosed in a wire cage, and from the top of this she hangs some cat attraction, upon which the creature bounds and shows those wonderful antics that the artist has so marvellously reproduced in her painting. Mme. Ronner has two favorite models, "Jem" and "Monmouth."

The last name is cla.s.sical, since the cat of Mother Michel has been made immortal.

Miss Winslow, in "Concerning Cats," says that "Mme. Ronner excels all other cat painters, living or dead. She not only infuses a wonderful degree of life into her little figures, but reproduces the shades of expression, s.h.i.+fting and variable as the sands of the sea, as no other artist of the brush has done. Asleep or awake, her cats look to the"

felinarian "like cats with whom he or she is familiar. Curiosity, drowsiness, indifference, alertness, love, hate, anxiety, temper, innocence, cunning, fear, confidence, mischief, earnestness, dignity, helplessness--they are all in Mme. Ronner's cats' faces, just as we see them in our own cats."

It is but a short time ago that Mme. Ronner was still painting in Brussels, and had not only cats, but a splendid black dog and a c.o.c.katoo to bear her company, while her son is devoted to her. Her house is large and her grounds pleasant, and her fourscore years did not prevent her painting several hours a day, and, like some other ladies of whom we know, she was "eighty years young."

The editor of the _Magazine of Art_, M. H. Spielman, in an article on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1903, writes: "What the dog is to Mr. Riviere, to Madame Ronner is the cat. With what unerring truth she records delightful kittenly nature, the feline n.o.bility of haughty indifference to human approval or discontent, the subtlety of expression, and drawing of heads and bodies, the exact quality and tone of the fur, the expressive eloquence of the tail! With all her eighty years, Madame Ronner's hand, vision, and sensibility have not diminished; only her sobriety of color seems to have increased." Her pictures of this year were called "The Ladybird" and "Coaxing." To the Exhibition of the Beaux-Arts in Brussels, 1903, Mme. Ronner sent pictures of cats, full of life and mischief.

ROOSENBOOM, MARGARITE VOGEL. Second-cla.s.s medal, Munich, 1892. Born in 1843 and died in 1896, near The Hague. She spent a large part of her life near Utrecht, devoting herself mainly to the painting of flowers.

One of her works is in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam, and another in the Museum at Breslau.

ROPE, ELLEN M. This English sculptor executed four large panels for the Women's Building at the Chicago Exhibition. They represented Faith, Hope, Charity, and Heavenly Wisdom. They are now in the Ladies' Dwelling, Cherries Street, London. A "Memorial" by her is in Salisbury Cathedral.

Her reliefs of children are, however, her best works; that of a "Boy on a Dolphin" is most attractive. "Christ Blessing Little Children" is charmingly rendered.

At the Academy, 1903, she exhibited a panel for an organ chamber, in low relief.

ROSA, ANIELLA DI. 1613-1649. A pupil in Naples of Stanzioni, who, by reason of her violent death, has been called the Neapolitan Sirani. She acquired a good reputation as a historical painter and doubtless had unusual talent, but as she worked in conjunction with Stanzioni and with her husband, Agostino Beltrano, it is difficult to speak of works entirely her own.

Two pictures that were acknowledged to be hers represented the birth and death of the Virgin; these were praised and were at one time in a church in Naples, but in a recent search for them I was unable to satisfy myself that the pictures I saw were genuine.

Another pupil in the studio of Stanzioni was the Beltrano whom Aniella married. He painted in fresco, Aniella in oils, and they were frequently employed together. The fine picture of San Biagio, in the church of Santa Maria della Sanita, was one of their joint works.

Their early married life was very happy, but Aniella was beautiful and Beltrano grew jealous; it is said without cause, through the influence of a woman who loved him and hated Aniella; and in spite of the efforts she made to merit her husband's confidence, his distrust of her increased.