Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 51

In the summer of 1875, in Vorden, she met Johannes Bilders, under whose direction she studied landscape painting. This master took great pains to develop the originality of his pupil rather than to encourage her adapting the manner of other artists. During her stay in Vorden she made a distinct gain in the attainment of an individual style of painting.

After her return to her home at The Hague, Bilders established a studio there and showed a still keener interest in his pupil. This artistic friends.h.i.+p resulted in the marriage of the two artists, and in 1880 they established themselves in Oosterbeck.

Here began the intimate study of the heath which so largely influenced the best pictures by Frau Bilders. In the garden of the picturesque house in which the two artists lived was an old barn, which became her studio, where, early and late, in all sorts of weather, she devotedly observed the effects later pictured on her canvases. At this time she executed one of her best works, now in the collection of the Prince Regent of Brunswick. It is thus described by a Dutch writer in Rooses' "Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century":

"It represents a deep pool, overshadowed by old gnarled willows in their autumnal foliage, their silvery trunks bending over, as if to see themselves in the clear, still water. On the edge of the pool are flowers and variegated gra.s.ses, the latter looking as if they wished to crowd out the former--as if _they_ were in the right and the flowers in the wrong; as if such bright-hued creatures had no business to eclipse their more sombre tones; as if _they_ and _they_ alone were suited to this silent, forsaken spot."

Johannes Bilders was fully twenty-five years older than his wife, and the failure of both his physical and mental powers in his last days required her absolute devotion to him. In spite of this, the garden studio was not wholly forsaken, and nearly every day she accomplished something there.

After her husband's death she had a long illness. On her recovery she returned to The Hague and took the studio which had been that of the artist Mauve.

The life of the town was wearisome to her, but she found a compensation in her re-union with her old friends, and with occasional visits to the heath she pa.s.sed most of her remaining years in the city.

Her favorite subjects were landscapes with birch and beech trees, and the varying phases of the heath and of solitary and unfrequented scenes. Her works are all in private collections. Among them are "The Forester's Cottage," "Autumn in Doorwerth," "The Old Birch," and the "Old Oaks of Wodan at Sunset."

BOZNANSKA, OLGA. Born in Cracow, where she was a pupil of Matejko.

Later, in Munich, she studied with Kricheldorf and Durr. Her mother was a French woman, and critics trace both Polish and French characteristics in her work.

She paints portraits and genre subjects. She is skilful in seizing salient characteristics, and her chief aim is to preserve the individuality of her sitters and models. She skilfully manages the side-lights, and by this means produces strong effects. After the first exhibition of her pictures in Berlin, her "G.o.d-given talent" was several times mentioned by the art critics.

At Munich she made a good impression by her pictures exhibited in 1893 and 1895; at the Exposition in Paris, 1889, her portrait and a study in pastel were much admired and were generously praised in the art journals.

*c.o.x, LOUISE. The picture by Mrs. c.o.x, reproduced in this book, ill.u.s.trates two lines in a poem by Austin Dobson, called "A Song of Angiola in Heaven."

"Then set I lips to hers, and felt,-- Ah, G.o.d,--the hard pain fade and melt."

DE MORGAN, EMILY. Family name Pickering. When sixteen years old, this artist entered the Slade School, and eighteen months later received the Slade Scholars.h.i.+p, by which she was ent.i.tled to benefit for three years. At the end of the first year, however, she resigned this privilege because she did not wish to accept the conditions of the gift.

As a child she had loved the pictures of the precursors of Raphael, in the National Gallery, and her first exhibited picture, "Ariadne in Naxos," hung in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, proved how closely she had studied these old masters. At this time she knew nothing of the English Pre-Raphaelites; later, however, she became one of the most worthy followers of Burne-Jones.

About the time that she left the Slade School one of her uncles took up his residence in Florence, where she has spent several winters in work and study.

One of her most important pictures is inscribed with these lines:

"Dark is the valley of shadows, Empty the power of kings; Blind is the favor of fortune, Hungry the caverns of death.

Dim is the light from beyond, Unanswered the riddle of life."

This pessimistic view of the world is ill.u.s.trated by the figure of a king, who, in the midst of ruins, places his foot upon the prostrate form of a chained victim; Happiness, with bandaged eyes, scatters treasures into the bottomless pit, a desperate youth being about to plunge into its depths; a kneeling woman, praying for light, sees brilliant figures soaring upward, their beauty charming roses from the thorn bushes.

Other pictures by this artist remind one of the works of Botticelli. Of her "Ithuriel" W. S. Sparrow wrote: "It may be thought that this Ithuriel is too mild--too much like Shakespeare's Oberon--to be in keeping with the terrific tragedy depicted in the first four books of the 'Paradise Lost.' Eve, too, lovely as she is, seems to bear no likelihood of resemblance to Milton's superb mother of mankind. But the picture has a sweet, serene grace which should make us glad to accept from Mrs. De Morgan another Eve and another Ithuriel, true children of her own fancy."

The myth of "Boreas and Orithyia," though faulty perhaps in technique, is good in conception and arrangement.

Mrs. De Morgan has produced some impressive works in sculpture. Among these are "Medusa," a bronze bust; and a "Mater Dolorosa," in terra-cotta.

DESCHLY, IRENE. Born in Bucharest, the daughter of a Roumanian advocate. She gave such promise as an artist that a government stipend was bestowed on her, which enabled her to study in Paris, where she was a pupil of Laurens and E. Carriere.

Her work is tinged with the melancholy and intensity of her nature--perhaps of her race; yet there is something in her grim conceptions, or rather in her treatment of them, that demands attention and compels admiration. Even in her "Sweet Dream," which represents the half-nude figure of a young girl holding a rose in her hand, there is more sadness than joy, as though she said, "It is only a dream, after all." "Chanson," exhibited at the Paris Exposition, 1900, displays something of the same quality.

ERISTOW-KASAK, PRINCESS MARIE. Among the many Russian portraits in the Paris Exposition, 1900, two, the work of this pupil of Michel de Zichys, stood out in splendid contrast with the cra.s.s realism or the weak idealism of the greater number. One was a half-length portrait of the laughing Mme. Paquin; full of life and movement were the pose of the figure, the fall of the draperies, and the tilt of the expressive fan.

The other was the spirited portrait of Baron von Friedericks, a happy combination of cavalier and soldier in its manly strength.

When but sixteen years old, the Princess Marie roused the admiration of the Russian court by her portrait of the Grand Duke Sergius. This led to her painting portraits of various members of the royal family while she was still a pupil of De Zichys.

After her marriage she established herself in Paris, where she endeavors to preserve an incognito as an artist in order to work in the most quiet and devoted manner.

GOEBELER, ELISE. This artist studied drawing under Steff.e.c.k and color under Durr, in Munich. Connoisseurs in art welcome the name of Elise Goebeler in exhibitions, and recall the remarkable violet-blue lights and the hazy atmosphere in her works, out of which emerges some charming, graceful figure; perhaps a young girl on whose white shoulders the light falls, while a shadow half conceals the rest of the form.

These dreamy, Madonna-like beauties are the result of the most severe and protracted study. Without the remarkable excellence of their technique and the unusual quality of their color they would be the veriest sentimentalities; but wherever they are seen they command admiration.

Her "Cinderella," exhibited in Berlin in 1880, was bought by the Emperor; another picture of the same subject, but quite different in effect, was exhibited in Munich in 1883. In the same year, in Berlin, "A Young Girl with p.u.s.s.y-Willows" and "A Neapolitan Water Carrier" were seen. In 1887, in Berlin, her "Vanitas, Vanitatum Vanitas" and the "Net-Mender" were exhibited, and ten years later "Cheerfulness" was highly commended. At Munich, in 1899, her picture, called "Elegie," attracted much attention and received unusual praise.

*HERBELIN, JEANE MATHILDE. This miniaturist has recently died at the age of eighty-four. In addition to the medals and honors she had received previous to 1855, it was that year decided that her works should be admitted to the Salon without examination. She was a daughter of General Habert, and a niece of Belloc, under whom she studied her art while still very young. Her early ambition was to paint large pictures, but Delacroix persuaded her to devote herself to miniature painting, in which art she has been called "the best in the world."

She adopted the full tones and broad style to which she was accustomed in her larger works, and revolutionized the method of miniature painting in which stippling had prevailed. When eighteen years old, she went to Italy, where she made copies from the masters and did much original work as well.

Among her best portraits are those of the Baroness Habert, Guizot, Rossini, Isabey, Robert-Fleury, M. and Mme. de Torigny, Count de Zeppel, and her own portrait. Besides portraits, she painted a picture called "A Child Holding a Rose," "Souvenir," and "A Young Girl Playing with a Fan."

JOHNSON, ADELAIDE. Born at Plymouth, Illinois. This sculptor first studied in the St. Louis School of Design, and in 1877, at the St. Louis Exposition, received two prizes for the excellence of her wood carving.

During several years she devoted herself to interior decoration, designing not only the form and color to be used in decorating edifices, but also the furniture and all necessary details to complete them and make them ready for use.

Being desirous of becoming a sculptor, Miss Johnson went, in 1883, to England, Germany, and Italy. In Rome she was a pupil of Monteverde and of Altini, who was then president of the Academy of St. Luke.

After two years she returned to America and began her professional career in Chicago, where she remained but a year before establis.h.i.+ng herself in Was.h.i.+ngton. Her best-known works are portrait busts, which are numerous.

Many of these have been seen in the Corcoran Art Gallery and in other public exhibitions.

Of her bust of Susan B. Anthony, the sculptor, Lorado Taft, said: "Your bust of Miss Anthony is better than mine. I tried to make her real, but you have made her not only real, but ideal." Among her portraits are those of General Logan, Dr. H. W. Thomas, Isabella Beecher Hooker, William Tebb, Esq., of London, etc.

KOEGEL, LINDA. Born at The Hague. A pupil of Stauffer-Bern in Berlin and of Herterich in Munich. Her attachment to impressionism leads this artist to many experiments in color--or, as one critic wrote, "to play with color."

She apparently prefers to paint single figures of women and young girls, but her works include a variety of subjects. She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching. The light touch in some of her genre pictures is admirable, and in contrast, the portrait of her father--- the court preacher--displays a masculine firmness in its handling, and is a very striking picture.

In 1895 she exhibited at the Munich Secession the portrait of a woman, delicate but spirited, and a group which was said to set aside every convention in the happiest manner.