Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D Part 7

A memorial fountain at Flus.h.i.+ng, Long Island, a medallion portrait of Miss c.o.x of Terre Haute, a monument to a child in the same city, a Victory in a quadriga, seen on the United States Building, Paris, 1900, and also at the Buffalo Exhibition, 1901, are among her important works.

BAnUELOS, ANTONIA. At the Paris Exposition of 1878 several portraits by this artist attracted attention, one of them being a portrait of herself. At the Exposition of 1880 she exhibited "A Guitar Player."

BARRANTES MANUEL DE ARAGON, MARIA DEL CaRMEN. Member of the Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 1816. This inst.i.tution possesses a drawing by her of the "Virgin with the Christ-Child" and a portrait in oil of a person of the epoch of Charles III.

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE. Born in Russia of a n.o.ble family. 1860-84. This remarkable young woman is interesting in various phases of her life, but here it is as an artist that she is to be considered. Her journal, she tells us, is absolutely truthful, and it is but courteous to take the story of her artistic career from that. She had lessons in drawing, as many children do, but she gives no indication of a special love for art until she visits Florence when fourteen years old, and her love of pictures and statues is awakened. She spent hours in galleries, never sitting down, without fatigue, in spite of her delicacy. She says: "That is because the things one loves do not tire one. So long as there are pictures and, better still, statues to be seen, I am made of iron." After questioning whether she dare say it, she confides to her readers: "I don't like the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael. The countenance of the Virgin is pale, the color is not natural, the expression is that of a waiting-maid rather than of a Madonna. Ah, but there is a Magdalen of t.i.tian that enchanted me. Only--there must always be an only--her wrists are too thick and her hands are too plump--beautiful hands they would be on a woman of fifty. There are things of Rubens and Vandyck that are ravis.h.i.+ng. The 'Mensonge' of Salvator Rosa is very natural. I do not speak as a connoisseur; what most resembles nature pleases me most. Is it not the aim of painting to copy nature? I like very much the full, fresh countenance of the wife of Paul Veronese, painted by him. I like the style of his faces. I adore t.i.tian and Vandyck; but that poor Raphael!

Provided only no one knows what I write; people would take me for a fool; I do not criticise Raphael; I do not understand him; in time I shall no doubt learn to appreciate his beauties. The portrait of Pope Leo X.--I think it is--is admirable, however." A surprising critique for a girl of her age!

When seventeen she made her first picture of any importance. "While they were playing cards last night I made a rough sketch of the players--and this morning I transferred the sketch to canvas. I am delighted to have made a picture of persons sitting down in different att.i.tudes; I copied the position of the hands and arms, the expressions of the countenance, etc. I had never before done anything but heads, which I was satisfied to scatter over the canvas like flowers."

Her enthusiasm for her art constantly increased. She was not willing to acknowledge her semi-invalidism and was filled with the desire to do something in art that would live after her. She was opposed by her family, who wished her to be in fas.h.i.+onable society. At length she had her way, and when not quite eighteen began to study regularly at the Julian Academy. She worked eight and nine hours a day. Julian encouraged her, she rejoiced in being with "real artists who have exhibited in the Salon and whose pictures are bought," and declared herself "happy, happy!" Before long M. Julian told her that she might become a great artist, and the first time that Robert-Fleury saw her work and learned how little she had studied, and that she had never before drawn from a living model, he said: "Well, then, you have extraordinary talent for painting; you are specially gifted, and I advise you to work hard."

Her masters always a.s.sured her of her talent, but she was much of the time depressed. She admired the work of Mlle. Breslau and acknowledged herself jealous of the Swiss artist. But after a year of study she took the second prize in the Academy, and admitted that she ought to be content.

Robert-Fleury took much interest in her work, and she began to hope to equal Breslau; but she was as often despondent as she was happy, which no doubt was due to her health, for she was already stricken with the malady from which she died. Julian wondered why, with her talent, it was so difficult for her to paint; to herself she seemed paralyzed.

In the autumn of 1879 she took a studio, and, besides her painting, she essayed modelling. In 1880 her portrait of her sister was exhibited at the Salon, and her mother and other friends were gratified by its acceptance.

At one time Mlle. Bashkirtseff had suffered with her eyes, and, getting better of that, she had an attack of deafness. For these reasons she went, in the summer of 1880, to Mont-Dore for treatment, and was much benefited in regard to her deafness, though not cured, and now the condition of her lungs was recognized, and what she had realized for some time was told to her family. She suffered greatly from the restrictions of her condition. She could not read very much, as her eyes were not strong enough to read and paint; she avoided people because of her deafness; her cough was very tiresome and her breathing difficult.

At the Salon of 1881 her picture was well hung and was praised by artists. In the autumn of that year she was very ill, but happily, about the beginning of 1882, she was much better and again enthusiastic about her painting. She had been in Spain and excited admiration in Madrid by the excellence of her copy of "Vulcan," by Velasquez. January 15th she wrote: "I am wrapped up in my art. I think I caught the sacred fire in Spain at the same time that I caught the pleurisy. From being a student I now begin to be an artist. This sudden influx of power puts me beside myself with joy. I sketch future pictures; I dream of painting an Ophelia. Potain has promised to take me to Saint-Anne to study faces of the mad women there, and then I am full of the idea of painting an old man, an Arab, sitting down singing to the accompaniment of a kind of guitar; and I am thinking also of a large affair for the coming Salon--a view of the Carnival; but for this it would be necessary that I should go to Nice--to Naples first for the Carnival, and then to Nice, where I have my villa, to paint it in open air."

She now met Bastien-Lepage, who, while he was somewhat severe in his criticism of her work, told her seriously that she was "marvellously gifted." This gave her great pleasure, and, indeed, just at this time the whole tone of the journal and her art enthusiasm are most comforting after the preceding despairing months. From this time until her death her journal is largely occupied with her health, which constantly failed, but her interest in art and her intense desire to do something worthy of a great artist--something that Julian, Robert-Fleury, and, above all, Bastien-Lepage, could praise, seemed to give her strength, and, in spite of the steady advance of the fell tuberculosis from which she was dying, she worked devotedly.

She had a fine studio in a new home of the family, and was seized with an ardent desire to try sculpture--she did a little in this art--but that which proved to be her last and best work was her contribution to the Salon of 1884. This brought her to the notice of the public, and she had great pleasure, although mingled with the conviction of her coming death and the doubts of her ability to do more. Of this time she writes: "Am I satisfied? It is easy to answer that question; I am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. My success is just enough to keep me from being unhappy.

That is all."

Again: "I have just returned from the Salon. We remained a long time seated on a bench before the picture. It attracted a good deal of attention, and I smiled to myself at the thought that no one would ever imagine the elegantly dressed young girl seated before it, showing the tips of her little boots, to be the artist. Ah, all this is a great deal better than last year! Have I achieved a success, in the true, serious meaning of the word? I almost think so."

The picture was called the "Meeting," and shows seven gamins talking together before a wooden fence at the corner of a street. Francois Coppee wrote of it: "It is a _chef d'oeuvre_, I maintain. The faces and the att.i.tudes of the children are strikingly real. The glimpse of meagre landscape expresses the sadness of the poorer neighborhoods."

Previous to this time, her picture of two boys, called "Jean and Jacques," had been reproduced in the Russian _Ill.u.s.tration_, and she now received many requests for permission to photograph and reproduce her "Meeting," and connoisseurs made requests to be admitted to her studio.

All this gratified her while it also surprised. She was at work on a picture called "Spring," for which she went to Sevres, to paint in the open.

Naturally she hoped for a Salon medal, and her friends encouraged her wish--but alas! she was cruelly disappointed. Many thought her unfairly treated, but it was remembered that the year before she had publicly spoken of the committee as "idiots"!

People now wished to buy her pictures and in many ways she realized that she was successful. How pathetic her written words: "I have spent six years, working ten hours a day, to gain what? The knowledge of all I have yet to learn in my art, and a fatal disease!"

It is probable that the "Meeting" received no medal because it was suspected that Mlle. Bashkirtseff had been aided in her work. No one could tell who had originated this idea, but as some medals had been given to women who did not paint their pictures alone, the committee were timid, although there seems to have been no question as to superiority.

A friends.h.i.+p had grown up between the families Bashkirtseff and Bastien-Lepage. Both the great artist and the dying girl were very ill, but for some time she and her mother visited him every two or three days.

He seemed almost to live on these visits and complained if they were omitted. At last, ill as Bastien-Lepage was, he was the better able of the two to make a visit. On October 16th she writes of his being brought to her and made comfortable in one easy-chair while she was in another.

"Ah, if I could only paint!" he said. "And I?" she replied. "There is the end to this year's picture!"

These visits were continued. October 20th she writes of his increasing feebleness. She wrote no more, and in eleven days was dead.

In 1885 the works of Marie Bashkirtseff were exhibited. In the catalogue was printed Francois Coppee's account of a visit he had made her mother a few months before Marie's death. He saw her studio and her works, and wrote, after speaking of the "Meeting," as follows:

"At the Exhibition--Salon--before this charming picture, the public had with a unanimous voice bestowed the medal on Mlle. B., who had been already 'mentioned' the year before. Why was this verdict not confirmed by the jury? Because the artist was a foreigner? Who knows? Perhaps because of her wealth. This injustice made her suffer, and she endeavored--the n.o.ble child--to avenge herself by redoubling her efforts.

"In one hour I saw there twenty canvases commenced; a hundred designs--drawings, painted studies, the cast of a statue, portraits which suggested to me the name of Frans Hals, scenes made from life in the open streets; notably one large sketch of a landscape--the October mist on the sh.o.r.e, the trees half stripped, big yellow leaves strewing the ground. In a word, works in which is incessantly sought, or more often a.s.serts itself, the sentiment of the sincerest and most original art, and of the most personal talent."

Mathilde Blind, in her "Study of Marie Bashkirtseff," says: "Marie loved to recall Balzac's questionable definition that the genius of observation is almost the whole of human genius. It was natural it should please her, since it was the most conspicuous of her many gifts. As we might expect, therefore, she was especially successful as a portrait painter, for she had a knack of catching her sitter's likeness with the bloom of nature yet fresh upon it. All her likenesses are singularly individual, and we realize their character at a glance. Look, for example, at her portrait of a Parisian swell, in irreproachable evening dress and white kid gloves, sucking his silver-headed cane, with a simper that shows all his white teeth; and then at the head and bust of a Spanish convict, painted from life at the prison in Granada. Compare that embodiment of fas.h.i.+onable vacuity with this face, whose brute-like eyes haunt you with their sadly stunted look. What observation is shown in the painting of those heavily bulging lips, which express weakness rather than wickedness of disposition--in those coa.r.s.e hands engaged in the feminine occupation of knitting a blue and white stocking!"

BAUCK, JEANNA. Born in Stockholm in 1840. Portrait and landscape painter. In 1863 she went to Dresden, and studied figure work with Professor Ehrhardt; later she moved to Dusseldorf, where she devoted herself to landscape under Flamm, and in 1866 she settled in Munich, where she has since remained, making long visits to Paris, Venice, and parts of Switzerland. Her later work is marked by the romantic influence of C. Ludwig, who was for a time her instructor, but she shows unusual breadth and sureness in dealing with difficult subjects, such as dusky forests with dark waters or bare ruins bordered with stiff, ghost-like trees. Though not without talent and boldness, she lacks a feeling for style.

BAUERLe, MISS A.

[_No reply to circular_.]

BAXTER, MARTHA WHEELER.

[_No reply to circular_.]

BEALE, MARY. 1632-97. This artist was the daughter of the Rev. Mr.

Cradock. She married Mr. Beale, an artist and a color-maker. She studied under Sir Peter Lely, who obtained for her the privilege of copying some of Vandyck's most famous works.

Mrs. Beale's portraits of Charles II., Cowley, and the Duke of Norfolk are in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and that of Archbishop Tillotson is in Lambeth Palace. This portrait was the first example of an ecclesiastic represented as wearing a wig instead of the usual silk coif.

Her drawing was excellent and spirited, her color strong and pure, and her portraits were sought by many distinguished persons.

Several poems were written in praise of this artist, in one of which, by Dr. Woodfall, she is called "Belasia." Her husband, Charles Beale, an inferior artist, was proud of his wife, and spent much time in recording the visits she received, the praises lavished on her, and similar matters concerning her art and life. He left more than thirty pocket-notebooks filled with these records, and showed himself far more content that his wife should be appreciated than any praise of himself could have made him.

BEAURY-SAUREL, MME. AMeLIE. Prize of honor at Exposition of Black and White, 1891; third-cla.s.s medal, Salon, 1883; bronze medal, Exposition, 1889. Born at Barcelona, of French parents. Pupil of Julian Academy. Among her princ.i.p.al portraits are those of Leon Say, Felix Voisin, Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Mme. Sadi-Carnot, Coralie Cohen, Princess Ghika, etc. She has also painted the "Two Vanquished Ones," "A Woman Physician," and a "Souvenir of a Bull-Fight," pastel, etc.

This artist has also contributed to several magazines. At the Salon of the Artistes Francais, 1902, she exhibited a portrait and a picture of "Hamlet"; in 1903 a picture, "In the Train." Mme. Beaury-Saurel is also Mme. Julian, wife of the head of the Academy in which she was educated.

BEAUX, CECILIA. Mary Smith prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1885, 1887, 1891, 1892; gold medal, Philadelphia Art Club, 1893; Dodge prize, National Academy of Design, 1893; bronze medal, Carnegie Inst.i.tute, 1896; first-cla.s.s gold medal, $1,500, Carnegie Inst.i.tute, 1899; Temple gold medal, Pennsylvania Academy, 1900; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; gold medal, (?) 1901. a.s.sociate of National Academy of Design, member of Society of American Artists, a.s.sociate of Societe des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Born in Philadelphia. Studied under Mrs. T. A.

Janvier, Adolf van der Weilen, and William Sartain in Philadelphia; under Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau, and Benjamin-Constant, in Paris.