Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 40

RATH, HENRIETTE. Honorary member of the Societe des Arts, 1801. Born in 1772, she died in 1856 at Genf, where, with her sister, she founded the Musee Rath. She studied under Isabey, and was well and favorably known as a portrait and enamel painter.

REAM, VINNIE. See Hoxie.

REDMOND, FRIEDA VOELTER. Medal at the Columbian Exhibition, Chicago.

Member of the Woman's Art Club. Born in Thun, Switzerland. Studies made in Switzerland and in Paris. A painter of flowers and still-life.

"Mrs. Redmond is a Swiss woman, now residing in New York. She has exhibited her works in the Paris Salon, in the National Academy of Design, at the Society of American Artists' exhibitions, etc., and was awarded a medal at the World's Fair in Chicago. Her work is not only skilful and accurate in description and characterization; it is done with breadth and freedom, and given a quality of fine decorative distinction.

Her subjects are roses, cyclamen, chrysanthemums, nasturtiums, double larkspurs, cinneraria, etc., and she makes each panel a distinct study in design, with a background and accessories of appropriate character. For example, the three or four large panels of roses painted at Mentone have a glimpse of the Mediterranean for background, and a suggestion of trellis-work for the support of the vine or bush; and in another rose panel we have a tipped-over Gibraltar basket with its luscious contents strewed about in artful confusion. The double larkspurs make very charming panels for decorative purposes. They are painted with delightful fulness of color and engaging looseness and crispness of touch."--_Boston Transcript_.

REGIS, EMMA. This Roman painter has given special attention to figures, and has executed a number of portraits, one of the best of which is that of the Marchioness Durazzo Pallavicini. She has exhibited some delightful work at Turin and at Rome, such as "The Lute-Player," "All is not Gold that Glitters," "Humanity," and "In illo Tempore?"

[_No reply to circular_.]

REINHARDT, SOPHIE. Born at Kirchberg, 1775; died at Karlsruhe, 1843.

Pupil of Becker. She travelled in Austro-Hungary and Italy. In the Kunsthalle at Karlsruhe is her picture of "St. Elizabeth and the Child John." Among her best works are "The Death of St. Catherine of Alexandria," "The Death of Ta.s.so," and twelve ill.u.s.trations for a volume of Hebel's poems.

REMY, MARIE. Born in Berlin, 1829. Daughter of Professor August Remy of the Berlin Academy. Pupil of her father, Hermine Stilke, and Theude Gronland. She travelled extensively in several European countries, making special studies in flowers and still-life, from which many of her water-colors were painted; twenty of these are in the Berlin National Gallery.

REUTER, ELIZABETH. Born in Lubeck, 1853. Pupil of Zimmermann in Munich, A. Schliecker in Hamburg, and of H. Eschke in Berlin. She also went to Dusseldorf to work in the Gallery there. Later she travelled in Scandinavia. Her best pictures are landscapes. Among them is a charming series of six water-colors of views in the park of Friedrichsruhe.

REVEST, CORNELIA LOUISA. Second-cla.s.s medals in 1819 and 1831 in Paris. Born in Amsterdam, 1795; died in Paris, 1856. Pupil of Serangely and Vafflard in Paris. In 1814 she painted a "Magdalen at the Feet of Christ" for a church in Ma.r.s.eilles. She also painted many good portraits and a picture called "The Young Mother Playing the Mandolin."

RICHARD, MME. HORTENSE. Honorable mention, Exposition of 1889; third-cla.s.s medal, 1892; silver medals at Antwerp and Barcelona, and gold medal in London. Born at Paris, 1860. Pupil of James Bertrand, Jules Lefebvre, and Bouguereau. Has exhibited regularly since 1875. Her picture of "Cinderella" is in the Museum of Poitiers; "At Church in Poitou" is in the Luxembourg. She has painted many portraits.

RICHARDS, ANNA MARY. Norman Dodge prize, National Academy, New York, 1890. Member of the '91 Art Club, London. Born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1870. Pupil of Dennis Bunker in Boston, H. Siddons Mowbray and La Farge in New York, Benjamin Constant and J. P. Laurens in Paris, and always of her father, W. T. Richards.

Miss Richards' work is varied. She is fond of color when suited to her subject; she also works much in black and white. When representing nature she is straightforward in her rendering of its aspects and moods, but she also loves the "symbolic expression of emotion" and the so-called "allegorical subjects." The artist writes: "I simply work in the way that at the moment it seems to me fitting to work to express the thing I have in mind. Where the object of the picture is one sort of quality, I use the method that seems to me to emphasize that quality."

When but fourteen years old this artist exhibited at the National Academy, New York, a picture of waves, "The Wild Horses of the Sea,"

which was immediately sold and a duplicate ordered. In England Miss Richards has exhibited at the Academy, and her pictures have been selected for exhibitions in provincial galleries. Miss Richards is earnestly devoted to her art, and has in mind an end toward which she diligently strives--not to become a painter distinguished for clever mannerism, but "to attain a definite end; one which is difficult to reach and requires widely applied effort."

Judging from what she has already done at her age, one may predict her success in her chosen method. In February, 1903, Miss Richards and her father exhibited their works in the Noe Galleries. I quote a few press opinions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAY DAY AT WHITELANDS COLLEGE, CHELSEA

ANNA M. RICHARDS]

"Miss Richards paints the sea well; she infuses interest into her figures; she has a love of allegory; her studies in Holland and Norway are interesting. Her 'Whitby,' lighted by sunset, with figures ma.s.sed in the streets in dark relief against it, is beautiful. Her 'Friends,'

showing two women watching the twilight fading from the summits of a mountain range, the cedared slopes and river valley below meantime gathering blueness and shadow, is of such strength and sweetness of fancy that it affects one like a strain of music."

"Miss Richards becomes symbolic or realistic by turn. Some of her figures are creatures of the imagination, winged and iridescent, like the 'Spirit of Hope.' Again, she paints good, honest Dutchmen, loafing about the docks. Sometimes she has recourse to poetry and quotes Emerson for a t.i.tle.... If technically she is not always convincing, it is apparent that the artist is doing some thinking for herself, and her endeavors are in good taste."

Miss Richards has written "Letter and Spirit," containing fifty-seven "Dramatic Sonnets of Inward Life."

These she has ill.u.s.trated by sixty full-page pictures. Of these drawings the eminent artist, G. F. Watts, says: "In imaginative comprehension they are more than ill.u.s.trations; they are interpretations.

I find in them an a.s.semblage of great qualities--beauty of line, unity and abundance in composition, variety and appreciation of natural effects, with absence of manner; also unusual qualities in drawing, neither academical nor eccentric--all carried out with great purity and completeness."

RICHARDS, SIGNORA EMMA GAGIOTTI. Rome.

[_No reply to circular_.]

RIES, THERESE FEODOROWNA. Bronze medal at Ekaterinburg; Karl Ludwig gold medal, Vienna; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900. Officer of the Academy. Born in Moscow. Pupil of the Moscow Academy and of Professor h.e.l.lmer, Vienna, women not being admitted to the Vienna Academy.

A critic in the _Studio_ of July, 1901, who signs his article A. S. L., writes as follows of this remarkable artist: "Not often does it fall to the lot of a young artist to please both critic and public at the same time, and, having gained their interest, to continue to fill their expectations. But it was so with Feodorowna Ries, a young Russian artist who some eight months ago had never even had a piece of clay in her hand, but who, by dint of 'self,' now stands amongst the foremost of her profession. It was chance that led Miss Ries to the brush, and another chance which led her to abandon the brush for the chisel. Five years ago she was awarded the Carl Ludwig gold medal for her 'Lucifer,' and at the last Paris Exhibition she gained the gold medal for her 'Unbesiegbaren'

(The Unconquerable).

"Miss Ries was born and educated in Moscow, but Vienna is the city of her adoption. She first studied painting at the Moscow Academy, her work there showing great breadth of character and power of delineation. At the yearly Exhibition in Moscow, held some five months after she had entered as a student, she took the gold medal for her 'Portrait of a Russian Peasant.' She then abandoned painting for sculpture, and one month later gained the highest commendations for a bust of 'Ariadne.' She then began to study the plastic art from life. Dissatisfied with herself, although her 'Somnambulist' gained a prize, Miss Ries left Moscow for Paris, but on her way stayed in Vienna, studying under Professor h.e.l.lmer. One year later, at the Vienna Spring Exhibition, she exhibited her 'Die Hexe.'

Here is no traditional witch, though the broomstick on which she will ride through the air is _en evidence_. She is a demoniac being, knowing her own power, and full of devilish instinct. The marble is full of life, and one seems to feel the warmth of her delicate, powerfully chiselled, though soft and pliable limbs."

"'Die Unbesiegbaren' is a most powerful work, and stood out in the midst of the sculpture at Paris in 1900 with the prominence imparted by unusual power in the perception of the _whole_ of a subject and the skill to render the perception so that others realize its full meaning. There are four figures in this group--men drawing a heavy freight boat along the sh.o.r.e by means of a towline pa.s.sed round their bodies, on which they throw their weight in such a way that their legs, pressed together, lose their outline--except in the case of the leader--and are as a ma.s.s of power. They also pull on the line with their hands. The leader bends over the rope until he looks down; the man behind him raises his head and looks up with an appealing expression; the two others behind are exerting all their force in pulling on the rope, but have twisted the upper part of the body in order to look behind and watch the progress of their great burden. There is not the least resemblance of one to the other, either in feature or expression, and to me it would seem that the woman who had conceived and executed this group might well be content to rest on her laurels.

"But an artistic creator who is really inspired with his art and not with himself is never satisfied; he presses on and on--sometimes after he has expressed the best of his talent. This is not yet reached, I believe, by Miss Ries, and we shall see still greater results of her inspiration."

The Austrian Government commissioned this artist to execute the figure of a saint. One may well prophesy that there will be nothing conventional in this work. She has already produced a striking "Saint Barbara." Her portrait busts include those of Professor Wegr, Professor h.e.l.lmer, Mark Twain, Countess Kinsky, Countess Palffs, Baron Berger, and many others.

RIJUTINE, ELISA. A bronze and a gold medal at the Beatrice Exposition, Florence, 1890. Born in Florence, where she resides and devotes herself to painting in imitation of old tapestries. An excellent example of her work is in water-colors and is called "The Gardener's Children." In 1888 and 1889 she exhibited "The Coronation of Esther" and a picture of "Oleanders."

ROBERTS, ELIZABETH WENTWORTH.

[_No reply to circular_.]