Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 45

STEVENS, EDITH BARRETTO. Two scholars.h.i.+ps and a prize of one hundred dollars from the Art Students' League, of which she is a member. Born in Houston, Virginia, in 1878. Studied at Art Students' League and under Daniel C. French and George Gray Barnard.

Miss Stevens mentions as her princ.i.p.al works "A Candlestick Representing a Girl Asleep under a Poppy," "Figure of Spring," and the "Spirit of Flame."

Miss Stevens is one of the women sculptors who have been selected to share in the decoration of the buildings for the St. Louis Exposition.

She is to make two reclining figures on the pediment over the main entrance to the Liberal Arts Building. She has in her studio two reclining figures which will probably serve to fulfil this commission.

Miss Stevens is modest about her work and does not care to talk much about this important commission, even suggesting that her design may not be accepted; if she is successful it will certainly be an unusual honor for a woman at her age, whose artistic career covers less than five years.

STEVENS, MARY. Bronze medal at the Crystal Palace. Member of the Dudley Gallery, London. Born at Liverpool. Pupil of William Kerry and of her husband, Albert Stevens, in England, and of the Julian Academy, Paris.

Mrs. Stevens' pictures were well considered when she exhibited a variety of subjects; of late, however, she has made a specialty of pictures of gardens, and has painted in many famous English and French gardens, among others, those of Holland House, Warwick Castle, and St. Anne's, Dublin.

In France, the gardens of the d.u.c.h.esse de Dino and the Countess Foucher de Careil.

Mrs. Stevens--several of whose works are owned in America--has commissions to paint in some American gardens and intends to execute them in 1904.

STILLMAN, MARIE SPARTALI. Pupil of Ford Madox Brown. This artist first exhibited in public at the Dudley Gallery, London, in 1867, a picture called "Lady Pray's Desire." In 1870 she exhibited at the Royal Academy, "Saint Barbara" and "The Mystic Tryst." In 1873 she exhibited "The Finding of Sir Lancelot Disguised as a Fool" and "Sir Tristram and La Belle Isolde," both in water-colors. Of these, a writer in the _Art Journal_ said: "Mrs. Stillman has brought imagination to her work. These vistas of garden landscape are conceived in the true spirit of romantic luxuriance, when the beauty of each separate flower was a delight. The figures, too, have a grace that belongs properly to art, and which has been well fitted to pictorial expression. The least satisfactory part of these clever drawings is their color. There is an evident feeling of harmony, but the effect is confused and the prevailing tones are uncomfortably warm."

W. M. Rossetti wrote: "Miss Spartali has a fine power of fusing the emotion of her subject into its color and of giving aspiration to both; beyond what is actually achieved one sees a reaching toward something ulterior. As one pauses before her work, a film in that or in the mind lifts or seems meant to lift, and a subtler essence from within the picture quickens the sense. In short, Miss Spartali, having a keen perception of the poetry which resides in beauty and in the means of art for embodying beauty, succeeds in infusing that perception into the spectator of her handiwork."

[_No reply to circular_.]

STOCKS, MINNA. Born in Scheverin, 1846. Pupil of Schloepke in Scheverin, Stiff.e.c.k in Berlin, E. Bosch in Dusseldorf, and J. Bauck in Munich. Her "Lake of Scheverin" is in the Museum of her native city.

Her artistic reputation rests largely on her pictures of animals. She exhibits at the Expositions of the Society of Women Artists, Berlin, and among her pictures seen there is "A Journey through Africa," which represents kittens playing with a map of that country. It was attractive and was praised for its artistic merit. In fact, her puppies and kittens are most excellent results--have been called masterpieces--of the most intimate and intelligent study of nature.

Among her works are "A Quartet of Cats," "The Hostile Brothers," and "The Outcast."

STOKES, MARIANNA. Honorable mention at Paris Salon, 1884; gold medal in Munich, 1890; medal at Chicago in 1893. Member of the Society of Painters in Tempera. Born in Graz-Styria. Pupil of Professor W. von Lindenschmit in Munich, of M. Dagnan Bouveret and M. Courtois in Paris.

Her picture, "A Parting," is in the Liverpool Gallery; "Childhood's Wonder," in the Nottingham Gallery; "Auca.s.sin and Nicolette," in the Pittsburg Gallery, etc.

Mrs. Stokes writes me that she has taken great interest in the revival of tempera painting in recent years. In reviewing the exhibition in the New Gallery, London, the _Spectator_ of May 2, 1903, speaks of the portraits by Mrs. Stokes as charming, and adds: "They are influenced by the primitive painters, but in the right way. That is, the painter has used a formal and unrealistic style, but without any sacrifice of artistic freedom." Of a portrait of a child the same writer says: "It would be difficult to imagine a happier portrait of a little child,... and in it may be seen how the artist has used her freedom; for although she has preserved a primitive simplicity, the sky, sea, and windmill have modern qualities of atmosphere. The picture is very subtle in drawing and color, and the sympathy for child-life is perfect, seen as it is both in the hands and in the eyes.

"Another portrait by the same artist is hung on a marble pillar at the top of the stairs leading up to the balcony. The admirable qualities of decoration are well shown by the way it is hung.... Is a fine piece of strong and satisfactory color, but the decorative aspect in no way takes precedence of the portraiture. We think of the man first and the picture afterward."

At the Academy, in 1903, Mrs. Stokes exhibited a portrait of J. Westlake, Esq., K.C.

STORER, MRS. MARIA LONGWORTH. Gold medal at Paris Exposition, 1900.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pupil of the Cincinnati Art School, which her father, Joseph Longworth, endowed with three hundred thousand dollars.

After working four years, making experiments in clay decoration at the Dallas White Ware Pottery, Mrs. Storer, "who had the enthusiasm of the artistic temperament coupled with fixity of purpose and financial resources,... had the courage to open a Pottery which she called Rookwood, the name of her father's place on the hills beyond. This was in 1880."

Nine years later this pottery had become self-supporting, and Mrs. Storer then dissolved her personal a.s.sociation with it, leaving it in charge of Mr. William Watts Taylor, who had collaborated with her during six years.

At the Paris Exposition Mrs. Storer exhibited about twenty pieces of pottery mounted in bronze--all her own work. It was an exquisite exhibition, and I was proud that it was the work of one of my countrywomen.

In 1897 Mr. Storer was appointed United States minister to Belgium, and Mrs. Storer took a j.a.panese artist, Asano, to Brussels, to instruct her in bronze work. Two years later Mr. Storer's mission was changed to Spain, and there Mrs. Storer continued, under Asano's guidance, her work in bronze, some of the results being seen in the mounting of her pottery.

At present Mr. Storer is our Amba.s.sador to Austria, and Mrs. Storer writes me that she hopes to continue her work in bronze in Vienna.

In the summer of 1903 Mrs. Storer was in Colorado Springs, where she was much interested in the pottery made by Mr. Van Briggle. She became one of the directors of the Van Briggle Pottery Company, and encouraged the undertaking most heartily.

STUMM, MAUD. Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Pupil of Art Students' League under Kenyon c.o.x and Siddons Mowbray, and of Oliver Merson in Paris, where her painting was also criticised and approved by Whistler. Her earliest work was flower painting, in which she gained an enviable reputation.

In Paris she began the study of figure painting, and her exhibition at the Salon was favorably received, the purity and brilliancy of her coloring being especially commended.

Several of Miss Stumm's pictures are well known by reproductions. Among these is the "Mother and Child," the original of which is owned by Mr.

Patterson, of the Chicago _Tribune_. Her calendars, too, are artistic and popular; some of these have reached a sale of nearly half a million.

A series of studies of Sarah Bernhardt, in pastel, and a portrait of Julia Marlowe are among her works in this medium. Many of her figure subjects, such as "A Venetian Matron" and "A Violinist," are portraits, not studies from professional models.

This artist has painted an unusual variety of subjects, but is ambitious in still another department of painting--decorative art--in which she believes she could succeed.

Her works are seen in the exhibitions of the Society of American Artists and of the American Water-Color Society.

SWOBODA, JOSEPHINE. Born in Vienna, 1861. Pupil of Laufberger and I.

V. Berger. This portrait artist has been successful and numbers among her subjects the Princess Henry of Prussia, the late Queen of England, whose portrait she painted at Balmoral in 1893, the Minister Bauhaus, and several members of the royal house of Austria. The portrait of Queen Victoria was exhibited at the Water-Color Club, Vienna.

She also paints charming miniatures. Her pictures are in both oil and water-colors, and are praised by the critics of the exhibitions in which they are seen.

SWOPE, MRS. KATE. Honorable mention at National Academy of Design, 1888; honorable mention and gold medal, Southern Art League, 1895; highest award, Louisville Art League, 1897. Member of Louisville Art League. Born in Louisville, Kentucky. Pupil of Edgar Ward and M. Flagg in New York, and later of B. R. Fitz.

Mrs. Swope devotes herself almost entirely to sacred subjects. The pictures that have been awarded medals are Madonnas. She prefers to paint her pictures out of doors and in the sunlight, which results in her working in a high key and, as she writes, "in tender, opalescent color."

One of her medal pictures is the "Head of a Madonna," out of doors, in a hazy, blue shadow, against a background of grapevine foliage. The head is draped in white; the eyes are cast down upon the beholder. A sun spot kisses the white draperies on the shoulder. It is a young, girlish face, but the head is suggestive of great exaltation.

A second picture which received an award was a "Madonna and Child," out of doors. The figure is half life size. Dressed in white, the Madonna is stretched at full length upon the gra.s.s. Raised on one arm, she gazes into the face of the infant Christ Child.

Mrs. Swope has had success in pastel, in which, not long since, she exhibited a "Mother and Child," which was much admired. The mother--in an arbor--held the child up and reverently kissed the cheek. It was called "Love," and was exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Mrs. Swope's most ambitious work--five by three feet in size--represents an allegorical subject and is called "Revelation."