Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 48

VOLKMAR, ANTONIE ELIZABETH CAECILIA. Born in Berlin, 1827. She studied with Schroder in her native city, with L. Cogniet in Paris, and later in Italy. She returned to Berlin, where she painted portraits and genre subjects. Her picture of the "Grandmother telling Stories" is in the Museum of Stettin. Among her works are "An Artist's Travels" a "German Emigrant," and "School Friends."

VONNOH, BESSIE POTTER. Bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; Second Prize at Tennessee Centennial. Honorable mention at Buffalo Exposition, 1901. Member of the National Sculpture Society and National Arts Club.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, 1872.

This sculptor is a pupil of the Art Inst.i.tute, Chicago. Among her best works are "A Young Mother"; "Twin Sisters"; "His First Journey"; "Girl Reading," etc.

In the _Century Magazine_, September, 1897, Arthur Hoeber wrote: "There were shown at the Society of American Artists in New York, in the Spring of 1896, some statuettes of graceful young womanhood, essentially modern in conception, singularly nave in treatment, refined, and withal intensely personal.... While the disclosure is by no means novel, Miss Potter makes us aware that in the daily prosaic life about us there are possibilities conventional yet attractive, simple, but containing much of suggestion, waiting only the sympathetic touch to be responsive if the proper chord is struck."

This author also notices the affiliation of this young woman with the efforts of the Tanagra workers, and says: "But if the inspiration of the young woman is evident, her work can in no way be called imitative."

VOS, MARIA. Born in Amsterdam, 1824. Pupil of P. Kiers. Her pictures were princ.i.p.ally of still-life, two of which are seen in the Amsterdam Museum.

WAGNER, MARIA DOROTHEA; family name Dietrich. 1728-1792. The gallery of Wiesbaden has two of her landscapes, as has also the Museum at Gotha.

"Der Muhlengrund," representing a valley with a brook and a mill, is in the Dresden Gallery.

WARD, MISS E. This sculptor has a commission to make a statue of G.

R. Clark for the St. Louis Exposition.

[_No reply to circular_.]

WARD, HENRIETTA MARY ADA. Gold and silver medals at the Crystal Palace; bronze medal at the Vienna Exposition, 1873. Born in Newman Street, London, when that street and the neighborhood was the quarter in which the then celebrated artists resided. Mrs. Ward was a pupil of the Bloomsbury Art School and of Sak's Academy. Her grandfather, James Ward, was a royal Academician, and one of the best animal painters of England.

While Sir Thomas Lawrence lived, Mrs. Ward's father, who was a miniaturist, was much occupied in copying the works of Sir Thomas on ivory, as the celebrated portrait painter would permit no other artist to repeat them. After the death of Sir Thomas, Mr. Ward became an engraver.

Her mother was also a miniature painter. Her great-uncles were William Ward, R.A., and George Morland; John Jackson, R.A., was her uncle; and her husband, Edward M. Ward, to whom she was married at sixteen, was also a Royal Academican.

From 1849, Mrs. Ward exhibited at the Royal Academy during thirty years, without a break, but her husband's death caused her to omit some exhibitions, and since that time her exhibits have been less regular. For some years Mrs. Ward has had successful cla.s.ses for women at Chester Studios, which have somewhat interfered with her painting.

Mrs. Ward's subjects have been historical and genre, some of which are extensively known by prints after them. Among these are "Joan of Arc,"

"Palissy the Potter," and "Mrs. Fry and Mary Saunderson visiting Prisoners at Newgate," the last dedicated by permission to Queen Victoria. This picture was purchased by an American.

Of her picture of "Mary of Scotland, giving her infant to the Care of Lord Mar," Palgrave wrote: "This work is finely painted, and tells its tale with clearness." Among her numerous works are: "The Poet Hogg's First Love"; "Chatterton," the poet, in the Muniment Room, Bristol; "Lady Jane Grey refusing the Crown of England"; "Antwerp Market"; "Queen Mary of Scots' farewell to James I."; "Was.h.i.+ng Day at the Liverpool Docks"; "The Princes in the Tower"; "George III. and Mrs. Delayney, with his family at Windsor"; "The Young Pretender," and many others.

When sixteen Mrs. Ward exhibited two heads in crayon. In 1903, at the Academy, she exhibited "The Dining-room, Kent House, Knightsbridge." Mrs.

Ward painted for Queen Victoria two portraits of the Princess Beatrice, and a life-size copy of a portrait of the Duke of Albany. She also painted a portrait of Princess Alice of Albany, who is about to marry Prince Alexander of Teck.

Edward VII. has commissioned this artist to make two copies of the state portrait, painted by S. Luke Fildes, R.A.

Mrs. Ward had two more votes for her admission to the Royal Academy than any other woman of her time has had.

Wa.s.sER, ANNA. Born at Zurich, 1676, is notable among the painters of her country. She was the daughter of an artist, and early developed a love of drawing and an unusual apt.i.tude in the study of languages. In painting she was a pupil of Joseph Werner. After a time she devoted herself to miniature painting; her reputation extended to all the German courts, as well as to Holland and England, and her commissions were so numerous that her father began to regard her as a mine of riches. He allowed her neither rest nor recreation, and was even unwilling that she should devote sufficient time to her pictures to finish them properly.

Under this pressure of haste and constant labor her health gave way and she became melancholy.

She was separated from her father, and in more agreeable surroundings her health was restored and she resumed her painting. Her father then insisted that she should return to him. On her journey home she had a fall, from the effects of which she died at the age of thirty-four.

Fuseli valued a picture by Anna Wa.s.ser, which he owned, and praised her correctness of design and her feeling for color.

WATERS, SADIE P. 1869-1900. Honorable mention Paris Exposition, 1900. Born in St. Louis, Missouri. This unusually gifted artist made her studies entirely in Paris, under the direction of M. Luc-Olivier Merson.

Her earlier works were portraits in miniature, in which she was very successful. That of Jane Hading was much admired. She also excelled in ill.u.s.trations, but in her later work she found her true province, that of religious subjects. A large picture on ivory, called "La Vierge au Lys,"

was exhibited in Paris, London, Brussels, and Ghent, and attracted much attention.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LA VIERGE AU ROSIER

SADIE WATERS]

Her picture of the "Vierge aux Rosiers," reproduced here, was in the Salon, 1899, and in the exhibition of Religious Art in Brussels in 1900, after which it was exhibited in New York; and wherever seen it was especially admired.

Miss Waters' pictures were exhibited in the Salon Francais, Champs Elysees, from 1891 until her death. From the earliest days of childhood she was remarkable for her skill in drawing and in working out, from her own impressions, pictures of events pa.s.sing about her. If at the theatre she saw a play that appealed to her, she made a picture symbolic of the play, and constantly startled her friends by her original ideas and the p.r.o.nounced artistic temperament, which was very early the one controlling power in her life. Mr. Carl Gutherz thus speaks of her good fortune in studying with M. Merson.

"As the Master and Student became more and more acquainted, and the great artist found in the student those kindred qualities which subsequently made her work so refined and beautiful,... he took the utmost care in developing her drawing--the fidelity of line and of expression, and the ever-pervading purity in her work. The sympathy with all good was reflected in the student, as it was ever present with the master, and only those who are acquainted with M. Merson can appreciate how fortunate it was for Art that the young artist was under a master of his character and temperament."

One of her pictures, called "La Chrysantheme," represents a nude figure of a young girl, seated on the ground, leaning against a large basket of chrysanthemums, from which she is plucking blossoms. The figure is beautiful, and shows the deep study the artist had made, although still so young.

The following estimate of her work is made by one competent to speak of such matters: "In this epoch of feverish uncertainty, of heated discussions and rivalries in art matters, the quiet, calm figure of Sadie Waters has a peculiar interest and charm generated by her tranquil and persistent pursuit of an ideal--an ideal she attained in her later works, an ideal of the highest mental order, mystical and human, and so far removed from the tendencies of our time that one might truthfully say, it stands alone. Her talents were manifold. She was endowed with the best of artistic qualities. She cultivated them diligently, and slowly acquired the handicraft and skill which enabled her to express herself without restriction. In her miniatures she learned to be careful, precise, and delicate; in her work from nature she was human; and in her studies of illuminating she gained a perfect understanding of ornamental painting and forms; and the subtle ambiance of the beautiful old churches and convents where she worked and pored over the ancient missals, and softly talked with the princely robed Monsignori, no doubt did much to develop her love for the Beautiful Story, the delicate myth of Christianity--and all this, all these rare qualities and honest efforts we find in her last picture, The Virgin.

"The beauty and preciseness of this composition, the divine feeling not without a touch of motherly sentiment, its delicacy so rare and so pure, the distinction of its coloring, are all past expression, and give it a place unique in the nineteenth century."--_Paul W. Bartlett_, Paris, 1903.

WEGMANN, BERTHA. Honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1880; third-cla.s.s medal, 1882; Thorwaldsen medal at Copenhagen; small gold medal, Berlin, 1894. Born at Soglio, Switzerland, 1847. Studied in Copenhagen, Munich, Paris, and Florence.

She paints portraits and genre subjects. Her pictures, seen at Berlin in 1893, were much admired. They included portraits, figure studies, and Danish interiors. At Munich, in 1894, her portraits attracted attention, and were commended by those who wrote of the exhibition. Among her works are many portraits: "Mother and Child in the Garden," and "A Widow and Child," are two of her genre subjects.

WEIS, ROSARIO. Silver medal from the Academy of San Fernando, 1842, for a picture called "Silence." Member of the Academy. Pupil of Goya, who early recognized her talent. In 1823, when Goya removed to Burdeos, she studied under the architect Tiburcio Perez. After a time she joined Goya, and remained his pupil until his death in 1828. She then entered the studio Lacour, where she did admirable work. In 1833, for the support of her mother and herself, she made copies of pictures in the Prado on private commissions.

In 1842 she was appointed teacher of drawing to the royal family, in which position she did not long continue, her death occurring in 1843.

Among her pictures are "Attention!" an allegorical figure; "An Angel"; "A Venus"; and "A Diana." Among her portraits are those of Goya, Velasquez, and Figaro.

WIEGMANN, MARIE ELISABETH; family name Hancke. Small gold medal, Berlin. Born 1826 at Solberberg, Silesia; died, 1893, at Dusseldorf. In 1841 she began to study with Stilke in Dusseldorf; later with K. Sohn.

She travelled extensively in Germany, England, Holland, and Italy, and settled with her husband, Rudolph Wiegmann, in Dusseldorf. In the Museum at Hanover is "The Colonist's Children Crowning a Negro Woman," and in the National Gallery at Berlin a portrait of Schnaase. Some children's portraits, and one of the Countess Hatzfeld, should also be mentioned among her works.