Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 6

Her busts and lesser subjects are refined and delicate, while possessing a certain individuality which this lady is known to exercise in her direction of the a.s.sistant she is forced to employ. Her chief attainment, the large seated figure of Queen Victoria in Kensington Gardens, is a work of which she may well be proud.

Of this statue Mr. M. H. Spielmann writes: "The setting up of the figure, the arrangement of the drapery, the modelling, the design of the pedestal--all the parts, in fact--are such that the statue must be added to the short list of those which are genuine embellishments to the city of London."

The d.u.c.h.ess of Argyll has been commissioned to design a statue of heroic size, to be executed in bronze and placed in Westminster Abbey, to commemorate the colonial troops who gave up their lives in South Africa in the Boer war.

ARNOLD, ANNIE R. MERRYLEES. Born at Birkenhead. A Scotch miniature painter. Studied in Edinburgh, first in the School of Art, under Mr.

Hodder, and later in the life cla.s.s of Robert Macgregor; afterward in Paris under Benjamin-Constant.

Mrs. Arnold writes me that she thinks it important for miniature painters to do work in a more realistic medium occasionally, and something of a bolder character than can be done in their specialty. She never studied miniature painting, but took it up at the request of a patroness who, before the present fas.h.i.+on for this art had come about, complained that she could find no one who painted miniatures. This lady gave the artist a number of the _Girls' Own Journal,_ containing directions for miniature painting, after which Mrs. Arnold began to work in this specialty. She has painted a miniature of Lady Evelyn Cavendish, owned by the Marquis of Lansdowne; others of the Earl and Countess of Mar and Kellie, the first of which belongs to the Royal Scottish Academy; one of Lady Helen Vincent, one of the daughter of Lionel Phillips, Esquire, and several for prominent families in Baltimore and Was.h.i.+ngton. Her work is seen in the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, London.

In 1903 she exhibited miniatures of Miss M. L. Fenton, the late Mrs.

Cameron Corbett, and the Hon. Thomas Erskine, younger son of the Earl of Mar and Kellie.

[_No reply to circular_.]

a.s.sCHE, AMeLIE VAN. Portrait painter and court painter to Queen Louise Marie of Belgium. She was born in 1804, and was the daughter of Henri Jean van a.s.sche. Her first teachers were Mlle. F. Lagarenine and D'

Antissier; she later went to Paris, where she spent some time as a pupil of Millet. She made her debut at Ghent in 1820, and in Brussels in 1821, with water-colors and pastels, and some of her miniatures figured in the various exhibitions at Brussels between 1830 and 1848, and in Ghent between 1835 and 1838. Her portraits, which are thought to be very good likenesses, are also admirable in color, drawing, and modelling; and her portrait of Leopold I., which she painted in 1839, won for her the appointment at court.

a.s.sCHE, ISABEL CATHERINE VAN. She was born at Brussels, 1794.

Landscape painter. She took a first prize at Ghent in 1829, and became a pupil of her uncle, Henri van a.s.sche, who was often called the painter of waterfalls. As early as 1812 and 1813 two of her water-colors were displayed in Ghent and Brussels respectively, and she was represented in the exhibitions at Ghent in 1826, 1829, and 1835; at Brussels in 1827 and 1842; at Antwerp in 1834, 1837, and 1840; and at Luttich in 1836. Her subjects were all taken from the neighborhood of Brussels, and one of them belongs to the royal collection in the Pavilion at Haarlem. In 1828 she married Charles Leon Kindt.

ATHES-PERRELET, LOUISE. First prize and honorable mention, cla.s.s Gillet and Hebert, 1888; cla.s.s Bovy, first prize, 1889; Academy cla.s.s, special mention, 1890; School of Arts, special mention, hors concours, 1891; also, same year, first prize for sculpture, offered by the Society of Arts; first prize offered by the Secretary of the Theatre, 1902.

Member of the Union des Femmes and Cercle Artistique. Born at Neuchatel.

Studies made at Geneva under Mme. Carteret and Mme. Gillet and Professors Hebert and B. Penn, in drawing and painting; M. Bovy, in sculpture; and of various masters in decorative work and engraving. Has executed statues, busts, medallion portraits; has painted costumes, according to an invention of her own, for the Theatre of Geneva, and has also made tapestries in New York. All her works have been commended in the journals of Geneva and New York.

AUSTEN, WINIFRED. Member of Society of Women Artists, London. Born at Ramsgate. Pupil of Mrs. Jopling-Rowe and Mr. C. E. Swan. Miss Austen exhibits in the Royal Academy exhibitions; her works are well hung--one on the line.

Her favorite subjects are wild animals, and she is successful in the ill.u.s.tration of books. Her pictures are in private collections. At the Royal Academy in 1903 she exhibited "The Day of Reckoning," a wolf pursued by hunters through a forest in snow. A second shows a snow scene, with a wolf baying, while two others are apparently listening to him.

"While the wolf, in nightly prowl, bays the moon with hideous howl," is the legend with the picture.

AUZON, PAULINE. Born in Paris, where she died. 1775-1835. She was a pupil of Regnault and excelled in portraits of women. She exhibited in the Paris Salon from 1793, when but eighteen years old. Her pictures of the "Arrival of Marie Louise in Compiegne" and "Marie Louise Taking Leave of her Family" are in the Versailles Gallery.

BABIANO Y MENDEZ NUnEZ, CARMEN. At the Santiago Exposition, 1875, this artist exhibited two oil paintings and two landscapes in crayon; at Coruna, 1878, a portrait in oil of the Marquis de Mendez Nunez; at Pontevedra, 1880, several pen and water-color studies, three life-size portraits in crayon, and a work in oil, "A Girl Feeding Chickens."

BAILY, CAROLINE A. B. Gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; third-cla.s.s medal, Salon, 1901.

[_No reply to circular_.]

BAKER, ELIZABETH GOWDY. Medal at Cooper Union. Member of Boston Art Students' a.s.sociation and Art Workers' Club for Women, New York. Born at Xenia, Ohio. Pupil of the Cooper Union, Art Students' League, New York School of Art, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Cowles Art School, Boston; under Frederick Freer, William Chase, and Siddons Mowbray.

This artist has painted numerous portraits and has been especially successful with pictures of children. She has a method of her own of which she has recently written me.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A PORTRAIT

ELIZABETH GOWDY BAKER]

She claims that it is excellent for life-size portraits in water-colors.

The paper she uses is heavier than any made in this country, and must be imported; the water-colors are very strong. Mrs. Baker claims that in this method she gets "the strength of oils with the daintiness of water-colors, and that it is _beautiful_ for women and children, and sufficiently strong for portraits of men."

She rarely exhibits, and her portraits are in private houses.

BAKHUYZEN, JUFFROUW GERARDINA JACOBA VAN DE SANDE. Silver medal at The Hague, 1857; honorary medal at Amsterdam, 1861; another at The Hague, 1863; and a medal of distinction at Amsterdam Colonial Exhibition, 1885.

Daughter of the well-known animal painter. From childhood she painted flowers, and for a time this made no especial impression on her family or friends, as it was not an uncommon occupation for girls. At length her father saw that this daughter, Gerardina--for he had numerous daughters, and they all desired to be artists--had talent, and when, in 1850, the Minerva Academy at Groningen gave out "Roses and Dahlias" as a subject, and offered a prize of a little more than ten dollars for the best example, he encouraged Gerardina to enter the contest. She received the contemptible reward, and found, to her astonishment, that the Minerva Academy considered the picture as belonging to them.

However, this affair brought the name of the artist to the knowledge of the public, and she determined to devote herself to the painting of flowers and fruit, in which she has won unusual fame. There is no sameness in her pictures, and her subjects do not appear to be "arranged"--everything seems to have fallen into its place by chance and to be entirely natural.

Gerardina Jacoba and her brother Julius van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the landscape painter, share one studio. She paints with rapidity, as one must in order to picture the freshness of fast-fading flowers.

Johan Gram writes of her: "If she paints a basket of peaches or plums, they look as if just picked by the gardener and placed upon the table, without any thought of studied effect; some leaves covering the fruit, others falling out of the basket in the most natural way. If she paints the branch of a rose-tree, it seems to spring from the ground with its flowers in all their luxurious wantonness, and one can almost imagine one's self inhaling their delightful perfume. This talented artist knows so well how to depict with her brush the transparency and softness of the tender, ethereal rose, that one may seek in vain among a crowd of artists for her equal.... The paintings are all bright and sunny, and we are filled with enthusiasm when gazing at her powerful works."

This artist was born in 1826 and died in 1895. She lived and died in her family residence. In 1850, at Groningen, she took for her motto, "Be true to nature and you will produce that which is good." To this she remained faithful all her days.

BALDWIN, EDITH ELLA. Born at Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts. Studied in Paris at Julian Academy, under Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury; at the Colarossi studios under Courtois, also under Julius Rolshoven and Mosler.

Paints portraits and miniatures. At the Salon of the Champ de Mars she exhibited a portrait in pastel, in 1901; at exhibitions of the Society of American Artists in 1898 and 1899 she exhibited miniatures; also pictures in oils at Worcester, 1903.

BALL, CAROLINE PEDDLE. Honorable mention at Paris Exhibition, 1900.

Member of the Guild of Arts and Crafts and of Art Students' League. Born at Terre Haute, Indiana. Pupil at the Art Students' League, under Augustus St. Gaudens and Kenyon c.o.x.

This sculptor exhibited at Paris a Bronze Clock. She designed for the Tiffany Gla.s.s Company the figure of the Young Virgin and that of the Christ of the Sacred Heart.