Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 49

In portraiture her work was distinguished by talent, spirit, and true artistic composition; in genre--especially the so-called ideal genre--she produced some exquisite examples.

WENTWORTH, MARQUISE CECILIA DE. Gold medal, Tours National Exposition, Lyons and Turin; Honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1891; Bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, 1901.

Born in New York. Pupil of the Convent of the Sacred Heart and of Cabanel, in Paris. This artist has painted portraits of Leo XIII., who presented her with a gold medal; of Cardinal Ferrata; of Challemel-Lacour, President of the Senate at the time when the portrait was made, and of many others. Her picture of "Faith" is in the Luxembourg Gallery. At the Salon des Artistes Francais, 1903, Madame de Wentworth exhibited the "Portrait of Mlle. X.," and "Solitude."

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WHEELER, JANET. First Toppan Prize and Mary Smith Prize at Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Gold medal, Philadelphia Art Club. Fellow of Academy of Fine Arts, and member of Plastic Club, Philadelphia. Born in Detroit, Michigan. Pupil of Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and of the Julian Academy in Paris.

This artist paints portraits almost entirely, which are in private hands.

I know of but one figure picture by her, which is called "Beg for It."

She was a miniaturist several years before taking up larger portraits.

WHITE, FLORENCE. Silver medal at Woman's Exhibition, Earl's Court; silver medal for a pastel exhibited in Calcutta. Born at Brighton, England. Pupil of Royal Academy Schools in London, and of Bouguereau and Perrier in Paris.

In 1899 this artist exhibited a portrait in the New Gallery; in 1901 a portrait of Bertram Blunt, Esq., at the Royal Academy; and in 1902 a portrait of "Peggy," a little girl with a poodle.

She has sent miniatures to the Academy exhibitions several years; that of Miss Lyall Wilson was exhibited in 1903.

WHITMAN, SARAH DE ST. PRIX. Bronze medal at Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893; gold and bronze medals at Atlanta Exposition; diploma at Pan-American, Buffalo, 1901. Member of the Society of American Artists, New York; Copley Society, Boston; Water-Color Club, Boston. Born in Baltimore, Maryland. Pupil of William M. Hunt and Thomas Couture.

Mrs. Whitman has painted landscapes and portraits, and of recent years has been much occupied with work in gla.s.s. Windows by her are in Memorial Hall, Cambridge; in the Episcopal Church in Andover, Ma.s.sachusetts, etc.

An altar-piece by her is in All Saints' Church, Worcester.

Her portrait of Senator Bayard is in the State Department, Was.h.i.+ngton.

WHITNEY, ANNE. Born in Watertown, Ma.s.sachusetts. Made her studies in Belmont and Boston, and later in Paris and Rome.

Miss Whitney's sculptures are in many public places. A heroic size statue of Samuel Adams is in Boston and Was.h.i.+ngton, in bronze and marble; Harriet Martineau is at Wellesley College, in marble; the "Lotos-Eaters"

is in Newton and Cambridge, in marble; "Lady G.o.diva," a life-size statue in marble, is in a private collection in Milton; a statue of Leif Eriksen, in bronze, is in Boston and Milwaukee; a bust of Professor Pickering, in marble, is in the Observatory, Cambridge; a statue, "Roma,"

is in Albany, Wellesley, St. Louis, and Newton, in both marble and bronze; Charles Sumner, in bronze of heroic size, is in Cambridge; a bust of President Walker, bronze, is also in Cambridge; President Stearns, a bust in marble, is in Amherst; a bust of Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer is in Cambridge; a bust of Professor Palmer is on a bronze medal; the Calla Fountain, in bronze, is in Franklin Park; and many other busts, medals, etc., in marble, bronze, and plaster, are in private collections.

WILSON, MELVA BEATRICE. Prize of one hundred dollars a year for three successive years at Cincinnati Art Museum. Honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1897. Born in Cincinnati, 1875. Pupil of Cincinnati Art Museum, under Louis T. Rebisso and Thomas n.o.ble; in Paris, of Rodin and Vincent Norrottny.

By special invitation this sculptor has been an exhibitor at the National Sculpture Society, New York. Her princ.i.p.al works are: "The Minute Man,"

in Corcoran Art Gallery, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; "The Volunteer," which was given by the State of New York as a military prize to a Vermont Regiment; an equestrian statue of John F. Doyle, Jr.; "Bull and Bear" and the "Polo Player" in bronze, owned by Tiffany & Co.; "Retribution" in a private collection in New York.

Miss Wilson has been accorded the largest commission given any woman sculptor for the decoration of the buildings of the St. Louis Exposition.

She is to design eight spandrils for Machinery Hall, each one being twenty-eight by fifteen feet in size, with figures larger than life. The design represents the wheelwright and boiler-making trades. Reclining nude figures, of colossal size, bend toward the keystone of the arch, each holding a tool of a machinist. Interlaced cog-wheels form the background.

WIRTH, ANNA MARIE. Member of the Munich Art a.s.sociation. Born in St.

Petersburg, 1846. Studied in Vienna under Straschiripka--commonly known as Johann Canon--and in Paris, although her year's work in the latter city seems to have left no trace upon her manner of painting. The genre pictures, in which she excels, clearly show the influence of the old Dutch school. A writer in "Moderne Kunst" says, in general, that she shows us real human beings under the "precieuses ridicules," the languis.h.i.+ng gallants and the pedant, and often succeeds in individualizing all these with the sharpness of a Chodowiecki, though at times she is merely good-natured, and therefore weak.

Sometimes, like Terborch, by her anecdotical treatment, she can set a whole romantic story before you; again, in the manner of Gerard Dow, she gives you a penetrating glimpse into old burgher life--work that is quite out of touch with the dilettantism that largely pervades modern art.

The admirers of this unusual artist seek out her genre pictures in the exhibitions of to-day, much as one turns to an idyl of Heinrich Voss, after a dose of the "storm and stress" poets. Most of her works are in private galleries.

One of her best pictures will be seen at the St. Louis Exposition.

WISINGER-FLORIAN, OLGA. Bavarian Ludwig medal, 1891; medal at Chicago, 1893. Born in Vienna, 1844. Pupil of Schaffer and Schwindler.

She has an excellent reputation as a painter of flowers. In the New Gallery, Munich, is one of her pictures of this sort; and at Munich, 1893, her flower pieces were especially praised in the reports of the exhibition.

She also paints landscapes, in which she gains power each year; her color grows finer and her design or modelling stronger. At Vienna, 1890, it was said that her picture of the "Bauernhofe" was, by its excellent color, a disadvantage to the pictures near it, and the sh.o.r.e motive in "Abbazia"

was full of artistic charm. At Vienna, 1893, she exhibited a cycle, "The Months," which bore witness to her admirable mastery of her art.

Among her works are some excellent Venetian subjects: "On the Rialto"; "Morning on the Sh.o.r.e"; and "In Venice."

WOLFF, BETTY. Honorable mention, Berlin, 1890. Member of the a.s.sociation of Women Artists and Friends of Art; also of the German Art a.s.sociation. Born in Berlin, where she was a pupil of Karl Stauffer-Bern; she also studied in Munich under Karl Marr.

Besides numerous portraits of children, in pastel, this artist has painted portraits in oils of many well-known persons, among whom are Prof. H. Steinthal, Prof. Albrecht Weber, and General von Zycklinski.

WOLTERS, HENRIETTA, family name Van Pee. Born in Amsterdam.

1692-1741. Pupil of her father, and later made a special study of miniature under Christoffel le Blond. Her early work consisted largely in copies from Van de Velde and Van Dyck. Her miniatures were so highly esteemed that Peter the Great offered her a salary of six thousand florins as his court painter; and Frederick William of Prussia invited her to his court, but nothing could tempt her away from her home in Amsterdam. She received four hundred florins for a single miniature, a most unusual price in her time.

WOOD, CAROLINE S. Daughter of Honorable Horatio D. Wood, of St.

Louis. This sculptor has made unusual advances in her art, to which she has seriously devoted herself less than four years. She has studied in the Art School of Was.h.i.+ngton University, the Art Inst.i.tute, Chicago, and is now a student in the Art League, New York.

She has been commissioned by the State of Missouri to make a statue to represent "The Spirit of the State of Missouri," for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

[_No reply to circular_.]

WOODBURY, MARCIA OAKES. Prize at Boston Art Club; medals at Mechanics' a.s.sociation Exhibition, Atlanta and Nashville Expositions.

Member of the New York and Boston Water-Color Clubs. Born at South Berwick, Maine. Pupil of Tomma.s.so Juglaris, in Boston, and of Lasar, in Paris.

Mrs. Woodbury paints in oils and water-colors; the latter are genre scenes, and among them are several Dutch subjects. She has painted children's portraits in oils. Her pictures are in private hands in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati. "The Smoker," and "Mother and Daughter," a triptych, are two of her princ.i.p.al pictures.