Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 34

"Cathedrals of Southern France." In collaboration with Francis Miltoun. Sold for publication in London and Boston, 1904.

"A Dante Calendar." London, 1903.

"A Rubaiyat Calendar." Boston, 1903.

"The King's Cla.s.sics." (Designs and Decorations.) London, 1902-1903.

"The Book of Days." A Calendar. Sold in London for 1904.

After speaking of several works by Miss McMa.n.u.s, a notice from London says: "A more difficult or at least a more intricate series were the designs cut on wood for 'The Altar Service Book,' just issued in London by that newly founded venture, the De La More Press; which has drawn unto itself such scholars as Dr. Furnival, Professor Skeat, and Israel Gollancz. These designs by Miss McMa.n.u.s were printed direct from the wood blocks in very limited editions, on genuine vellum, on j.a.panese vellum, and a small issue on a real sixteenth-century hand-made paper. The various editions were immediately taken up in London on publication; hence it is unlikely that copies will be generally seen in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DELFT

BLANCHE McMa.n.u.s MANSFIELD]

"We learn, however, that the original wood blocks will be shown at the St. Louis Exposition, in the section to be devoted to the work of American artists resident abroad. We suggest that all lovers of latter-day bookmaking 'make a note of it,' recalling meanwhile that it was this successful American designer who produced also the decorative wood-cut borders and initials which were used in 'The Coronation Prayer-Book of King Edward VII.,' issued from the celebrated Oxford University Press. There were forty initials or headings, embodying the coronation regalia, including the crown, sceptre, rose, thistle, shamrock, etc. The magnificent cover for the book was also designed by this artist.

"Among the American artists who have made a distinctive place in art circles, not only in America but on 'the other side,' is Mrs. M. F.

Mansfield, formerly Blanche McMa.n.u.s of Woodville, Mississippi.

"In London she is widely known as a skilful, able, and versatile artist, and her remarkable success there is an ill.u.s.tration of 'the American invasion.' Little has been written in America, especially in the South, of what this talented Southern woman has accomplished. She has never sought personal advertis.e.m.e.nt; on the contrary, she has shrunk from any kind of publicity--even that which would have accrued from a proper valuation of her work.

"She is one of those artists whose talent is equalled only by her modesty, who, enamoured of her art and aiming at a patient, painstaking realization of her ideal, has been content to work on in silence. In the estimation of art connoisseurs, Blanche McMa.n.u.s is an artist of unquestionable talent and varied composition, who has already done much striking work. Her execution in the various branches has attracted international attention.

"She paints well in water-colors and in oil, and her etching is considered excellent. Her drawing is stamped good, and every year she has showed rapid improvement in design. She is a highly cultivated woman, with a close and accurate observation. A sincere appreciation of nature was revealed in her earliest efforts, and for some years she devoted much time to its study."

Moring's _Quarterly_ says in regard to the special work which Mrs.

Mansfield has done: "It is so seldom that an artist is able to take in hand what may be termed the entire decoration of a book--including in that phrase cover, ill.u.s.tration, colophon, head- and tail-pieces, initial letters, and borders--that it is a pleasure to find in the subject of our paper a lady who may be said to be capable of taking all these points into consideration in the embellishment of a volume."

MEDICI, MARIE DE'. Wife of Henry IV. Born at Florence, 1573; died at Cologne, 1642. A portrait of herself, engraved on wood, bears the legend, "Maria Medici F. MDLx.x.xII." Another portrait of a girl, attributed to her, is signed, "L. O. 1617." It may be considered a matter of grave doubt whether the nine-year-old girl drew and engraved with her own hand the first-named charming picture, which has been credited to her with such frank insouciance.

MENGS, ANNA MARIA. Member of the Academy of San Fernando. She was a daughter of Anton Rafael Mengs, and was born in Dresden in 1751, where she received instruction from her father. In 1777 she married the engraver Salvador Carmona in Rome, and went with him to Spain, where she died in 1790. Portraits and miniatures of excellent quality were executed by her, and on them her reputation rests.

MERIAN, MARIA SIBYLLA. Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1647. This artist merits our attention, although her art was devoted to an unusual purpose. Her father was a learned geographer and engraver whose published works are voluminous. Her maternal grandfather was the eminent engraver, Theodore de Bry or Brie.

From her childhood Anna Sibylla Merian displayed an apt.i.tude for drawing and a special interest in insect life. The latter greatly disturbed her mother, but she could not turn the child's attention from entomology, and was forced to allow that study to become her chief pursuit.

The flower painter, Abraham Mignon, was her master in drawing and painting; but at an early age, before her studies were well advanced, she married an architect, John Andrew Graf, of Nuremberg, with whom she lived unhappily. She pa.s.sed nearly twenty years in great seclusion, and, as she tells us in the preface to one of her books, she devoted these years to the examination and study of various insects, watching their transformations and making drawings from them. Many of these were in colors on parchment and were readily sold to connoisseurs.

Her first published work was called "The Wonderful Transformations of Caterpillars." It appeared in 1679, was fully ill.u.s.trated by copper plate engravings, executed by herself from her own designs. About 1684 she separated from her husband, and with her daughters returned to Frankfort.

Many interesting stories are told of her life there.

She made a journey to Friesland and was a convert to the doctrines of Labadie, but she was still devoted to her study and research. She was a.s.sociated with the notable men of her time, and became the friend of the father of Rachel Ruysch. Although Madame Merian, who had taken her maiden name, was seventeen years older than the gifted flower painter, she became to her an example of industry and devotion to study.

Madame Merian had long desired to examine the insects of Surinam, and in 1699, by the aid of the Dutch Government, she made the journey--of which a French poet wrote:

"Sibylla a Surinam va chercher la nature, Avec l'esprit d'un Sage, et le coeur d'un Heros"

--which indicates the view then held of a journey which would now attract no attention.

While in Guiana some natives brought her a box filled with "lantern flies," as they were then called. The noise they made at night was so disturbing that she liberated them, and the flies, regaining liberty, flashed out their most brilliant light, for which Madame Merian was unprepared, and in her surprise dropped the box. From this circ.u.mstance a most exaggerated idea obtained concerning the illuminating power of the flies.

The climate of Surinam was so unhealthy for Madame Merian that she could remain there but two years, and in that time she gathered the materials for her great work called "Metamorphoses Insectorum Surinamensium," etc.

The ill.u.s.trations were her own, and she pictured many most interesting objects--animals and vegetables as well as insects--which were quite unknown in Europe. Several editions of this book were published both in German and French. Her plates are still approved and testify to the scope and thoroughness of her research, as well as to her powers as an artist.

Her chief work, however, was a "History of the Insects of Europe, Drawn from Nature, and Explained by Maria Sibylla Merian." The ill.u.s.trations of this work were beautiful and of great interest, as the insects, from their first state to their last, were represented with the plants and flowers which they loved, each object being correctly and tastefully pictured. Most of the original paintings for these works are in the British Museum. In the Vienna Gallery is a "Basket of Flowers" by this artist, and in the Basle Museum a picture of "Locust and Chafers."

The daughters of this learned artist naturalist, Joanna Maria Helena and Dorothea, shared the pursuits and labors of their mother, and it was her intention to publish their drawings as an appendix to her works. She did not live to do this, and later the daughters published a separate volume of their own.

This extraordinary woman, whose studies and writings added so much to the knowledge of her time, was neither beautiful nor graceful. Her portraits present a woman with hard and heavy features, her hair in short curls surmounted by a stiff and curious headdress, made of folds of some black stuff.

MERRITT, MRS. ANNA LEA. Honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1889; two medals and a diploma, Chicago Exposition, 1893. In 1890 her picture of "Love Locked Out" was purchased by the Chantry fund, London, for two hundred and fifty pounds. This honor has been accorded to few women, and of these I think Mrs. Merritt was first. Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. Born in Philadelphia. Pupil of Heinrich Hoffman in Dresden, and of Henry Merritt--whom she married--in London.

Mrs. Merritt has a home in Hamps.h.i.+re, England, but is frequently in Philadelphia, where she exhibits her pictures, which have also been seen at the Royal Academy since 1871.

This artist is represented by her pictures in the National Gallery of British Art, in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and by her portrait of Mr. James Russell Lowell in Memorial Hall, Harvard University.

[_No reply to circular_.]

MICHIS, MARIA. See Cattaneo.

MILBACHER, LOUISE VON. Prize at Berlin in 1886. Born at Bohmischbrod, 1845. Pupil of Ponninger and Eisenmenger. A painter of portraits and of sacred and genre subjects. Three of her portraits are well known--those of Baron Thienen, General von Neuwirth, and Baron Eber-Eschenbach. The altar-piece in the chapel of the Vienna Inst.i.tute, a "Holy Family," is by this artist. She has also painted still-life and animal subjects.

MODIGLIANI, SIGNORINA CORINNA. Silver medal at Turin Exposition, 1898; silver medal at the Exposition of Feminine Art, 1899, 1900; diploma at Leghorn, 1901; gold medal. Member of the International Artistic a.s.sociation. Born in Rome. Pupil of Professore Commendatore Pietro Vanni.

This artist has exhibited her works in the Expositions of Rome, Turin, Milan, Leghorn, Munich, Petersburg, and Paris since 1897, and will contribute to the St. Louis Exposition. Her pictures have been sold in Paris, London, and Ireland, as well as in Rome and other Italian cities, where many of them are in the collections of distinguished families.

MOLDURA, LILLA. A Neapolitan painter. Her father was an Italian and her mother a Spaniard. She was instructed in the elements of art by various excellent teachers, and then studied oil painting under Maldarelli and water-color under Mancini. She has often exhibited pictures in Naples, to the satisfaction of both artists and critics, and has also won success in London. She has been almost equally happy in views of the picturesque Campagna, and in interiors, both in oil and water-colors. The interior of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, in the Church of the Gerolamini, is strong in execution and good in drawing and color.

MoLLER, AGNES SLOTT. Born in 1862. Resides in Copenhagen. The especial work of this artist, by which her reputation is world-wide, is the ill.u.s.tration of old legends for children's books.