Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 46

SUES, MLLE. LEA. Three silver medals from the School of Arts, Geneva; diploma of honor at the National Swiss Exposition, 1896. Member of l'Athenee, Geneva. Born at Genoa and studied there under Professors Gillet, Poggy, and Castan.

This artist paints landscapes, Swiss subjects princ.i.p.ally. Her pictures of Mont Blanc and Chamounix are popular and have been readily sold. They are in private collections in several countries, and when exhibited have been praised in German and French as well as in Swiss publications.

SYAMOUR, MME. MARGUERITE. Honorable mention, 1887; bronze medal at Exposition at Lyons. Born at Brery, 1861. Pupil of Mercie. Her princ.i.p.al works are a plaster statue, "New France," 1886, in the Museum of Issoudun; a statue of Voltaire; a plaster statue, "Life"; a plaster group, the "Last Farewells"; a statue of "Diana," in the Museum of Amiens; a great number of portrait busts, among them those of Jules Grevy, Flammarion, J. Claretie, etc.

At the Salon, Artistes Francais, 1902, this artist exhibited a "Portrait of M. G. L.," and in 1904 "A Vision" and "La Dame aux Camelias."

TAYLOR, ELIZABETH V. Sears prize, Boston Art Museum; bronze medal, Nashville Exposition, 1897. Member of the Copley Society, Boston. Pupil of E. C. Tarbell and Joseph de Camp in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This artist paints portraits in miniature and in life size. Her works are numerous and have been seen in many exhibitions.

THAULOW, MME. ALEXANDRA. Wife of the great Scandinavian painter.

This lady is an artist in bookbinding and her work is much admired. A writer, H. F., says, in the _Studio_, December, 1903: "When the exhibition of bookbinding was held some time ago at the Musee Galliera, Madame Thaulow's showcase attracted attention by its variety and its grace. The charm of these bindings lies in the fact that they have none of the ma.s.sive heaviness of so many productions of this kind. One should be able to handle a book with ease, and not be forced to rest content with beholding it displaying its beauties behind gla.s.s or on the library shelf; and Madame Thaulow understood this perfectly when she executed the bindings now reproduced here. But these bindings are interesting not only from the standpoint of their utility and intelligent application; their ornamentation delights one by its graceful interpretation of Nature, rendered with a very special sense of decoration; moreover, the coloring of these mosaics of leather is restrained and fresh, and the hollyhocks and the hortensias, the bunches of mistletoe and the poppies, which form some of her favorite _motifs_, go to make up a delicious symphony."

THEVENIN, MARIE ANNE ROSALIE. Medals at the Salons of 1849, 1859, 1861. Born at Lyons. Pupil of Leon Cogniet. Portrait and figure painter.

Among her pictures the following are noticeable: "Flora McIvor and Rose Bradwardine," 1848; "Portrait of Abbe Jacquet," 1859; "Portrait of a Lady," 1861.

THOMAS-SOYER, MME. MATHILDE. Honorable mention, 1880; third-cla.s.s medal, 1881; bronze medal, Exposition, 1889. Born at Troyes, 1859. Pupil of Chapu and Cain. The princ.i.p.al works of this sculptor are: "A Russian Horse"; "Lost Dogs"; "Russian Greyhounds"; "Huntsmen and a Poacher," in the Museum of Semur; "Combat of Dogs," purchased by the Government; "Cow and Calf," in the Museum of Nevers; "Stag and Bloodhound," in the Museum of Troyes, etc.

At the Salon, Artistes Francais, 1902, Mme. Thomas-Soyer exhibited "An Irish Setter and a Laverock," and in 1903 "Under the White Squall."

Th.o.r.n.yCROFT, MARY. Born 1814; died 1895. Daughter of John Francis, the sculptor, whose pupil she was. This artist exhibited at the Royal Academy when very young. Her first important work was a life-size figure called "The Flower-Girl." In 1840 she married Thomas Th.o.r.n.ycroft, and went to Rome two years later, spending a year in study there. Queen Victoria, after her return, commissioned her to execute statues of the royal children as the Four Seasons. These were much admired when exhibited at the Academy. Later she made portrait statues and busts of many members of the royal family, which were also seen at the Academy Exhibition.

In his "Essays on Art," Palgrave wrote: "Sculpture has at no time numbered many successful followers among women. We have, however, in Mrs.

Th.o.r.n.ycroft, one such artist who, by some recent advance and by the degrees of success which she has already reached, promises fairly for the art. Some of this lady's busts have refinement and feeling."

THURBER, CAROLINE NETTLETON. Born in Oberlin, Ohio. Pupil of Howard Helmick in Was.h.i.+ngton, and of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens in Paris.

In 1898 Mrs. Thurber took a studio in Paris, where her first work was the portrait of a young violinist, which was exhibited in the Salon of the following spring. This picture met with immediate favor with the public, the art critics, and the press. The d.u.c.h.ess of Sutherland, upon seeing it, sent for the artist and arranged for a portrait of her daughter, which was painted the following autumn while Mrs. Thurber was a guest at Dunrobin Castle. This portrait was subsequently exhibited in London and Liverpool.

Mrs. Thurber has painted portraits of many persons of distinction in Paris, among them one of Mlle. Ollivier, only daughter of emile Ollivier, president of the Academie Francaise. Monsieur Ollivier, in a personal note to the artist, made the following comment upon the portrait of his daughter: "How much I thank you for the portrait of my daughter; it lives, so powerfully is it colored, and one is tempted to speak to it."

Mrs. Thurber is an exhibitor in the Salon, Royal Academy, and New Gallery, London, and other foreign exhibitions, as well as in those of this country.

She now has a studio in the family home at Bristol, Rhode Island, on Narragansett Bay, where she works during half the year. In winter she divides her time among the larger cities as her orders demand. While Mrs.

Thurber's name is well known through her special success in the portraiture of children, she has painted many prominent men and women in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Was.h.i.+ngton, and New England.

Among her later portraits are those of Mrs. James Sullivan, one of the lady commissioners of the St. Louis Exposition; Lieut.-Gen. Nelson A.

Miles; Albert, son of Dr. Shaw, editor of the _Review of Reviews_; Mrs.

A. A. F. Johnston, former Dean of Oberlin College; Augustus S. Miller, mayor of Providence; Hon. L. F. C. Garvin, governor of Rhode Island; and Judge Austin Adams, late of the Supreme Court of Iowa.

THURw.a.n.gER, FELICITe CHASTANIER. This remarkable artist, not long since, when eighty-four years old, sent to the exhibition at Nice--which is, in a sense, a branch of the Paris Salon--three portraits which she had just finished. "They were hung in the place of honor and unanimously voted to belong to the first cla.s.s."

Mme. Thurw.a.n.ger was the pupil of Delacroix during five years. The master unconsciously did his pupil an injury by saying to her father: "That daughter of yours is wonderfully gifted, and if she were a man I would make a great artist of her." Hearing this, the young artist burst into tears, and her whole career was clouded by the thought that her s.e.x prevented her being a really great artist, and induced in her an abnormal modesty. This occurred about forty-five years ago; since then we have signally changed all that!

Delacroix, who was an enthusiast in color, was the leader of one school of his time, and was opposed by Ingres, who was so wanting in this regard that he was accused of being color-blind.

Mme. Thurw.a.n.ger had a curious experience with these artists. When but seventeen she was commissioned by the Government to copy a picture in the Louvre. One morning, when she was working in the Gallery, Ingres pa.s.sed by and stopped to look at her picture. He examined it carefully, and with an expression of satisfaction said: "I am so very glad to see that you have the true idea of art! Remember always that there is no color in Nature; the outline is all; if the outline is good, no matter about the coloring, the picture will be good."

This story would favor the color-blind theory, as Ingres apparently saw color neither in the original nor the copy.

An hour later Delacroix came to watch the work of his pupil, and after a few minutes exclaimed: "I am so happy, my dear girl, to see that you have the true and only spirit of art. Never forget that in Nature there is no line, no outline; everything is color!"

In 1852 Mme. Thurw.a.n.ger was in Philadelphia and remained more than two years. She exhibited her pictures, which were favorably noticed by the Philadelphia _Enquirer_. In July of the above year her portraits were enthusiastically praised. "Not a lineament, not a feature, however trivial, escapes the all-searching eye of the artist, who has the happy faculty of causing the expression of the mind and soul to beam forth in the life-like and speaking face."

In October, 1854, her picture of a "Madonna and Child" was thus noticed by the same paper: "For brilliancy, animation, maternal solicitude, form, grace, and feature, it would be difficult to imagine anything more impressive. It is in every sense a gem of the pictorial art, while the execution and finish are such as genius alone could inspire."

TIRLINKS, LIEWENA. Born in Bruges, a daughter of Master Simon. This lady was not only esteemed as an artist in London, but she won the heart of an English n.o.bleman, to whom she was given in marriage by Henry VIII.

Her miniatures were much admired and greatly in fas.h.i.+on at the court.

Some critics have thought the Tirlinks to be the same person with Liewena Bennings or Benic, whose story, as we know it, is much the same as the above.

TORMOCZY, BERTHA VON. Diploma of honor, Budapest and Agram. Born at Innspruck, 1846. Pupil of Hausch, Her, and Schindler. Among her pictures are "Girl in the Garden," "Blossoming Meadows," "Autumn Morning," and a variety of landscapes.

TORO, PETRONELLA. A painter of miniatures on ivory which have attained distinction. Among those best known are the portraits of the Prince of Carignano, Duke Amadeo, and the d.u.c.h.ess d'Aosta with the sons of the Prince of Carignano. She has painted a young woman in an antique dress and another in a modern costume. Her works are distinguished by firmness of touch and great intelligence. She has executed some most attractive landscapes.

TREU, OR TREY, KATHARINA. Born at Bamberg. 1742-1811. A successful painter of flowers and still-life. Her talent was remarkable when but a child, and her father, who was her only master, began her lessons when she was ten years old. When still young she was appointed court painter at Mannheim, and in 1776 was made a professor in the Academy at Dusseldorf. Her pictures are in the Galleries of Bamberg and Carlsruhe, and in the Darmstadt and Stuttgart Museums.

URRUTIA DE URMENETA, ANA GERTRUDIS DE. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts, Cadiz, 1846. Born in Cadiz. 1812-1850. She began the study of drawing with Javier, and after her marriage to Juan Jose de Urmeneta, professor of painting and sculpture and director of the Cadiz Academy, continued her work under his direction. A "St. Filomena" and "Resurrection of the Body," exhibited in 1846, are among her best pictures. Her "St. Jeronimo" is in the new cathedral at Cadiz, and the Academy has shown respect to her memory by placing her portrait in the room in which its sessions are held.

VIANI, MARIA. Born at Bologna. 1670-1711. I find no reliable biographical account of this artist, whose name appears in the catalogue of the Dresden Gallery as the painter of the "Reclining Venus, lying on a blue cus.h.i.+on, with a Cupid at her side."