Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

ANNA WASSER.

She was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1676, and is esteemed by the Swiss as one of their most eminent painters. Her father was Rudolph Wasser, a member of the Grand Council of Zurich, and artist of the foundation of the Cathedral. She very early evinced a remarkable faculty for learning languages, and at the age of twelve was familiar with Latin and French, and acquainted with the general literature of those tongues. Her rapid progress in belles-lettres astonished every body, and gave the promise of wonderful attainments; but the bent of her genius was for art. She took lessons of the painter Joseph Werner, and had no sooner learned to handle a pencil, than she could think of nothing else. When thirteen years old she made a copy of Werner’s “Flora” in Bern, which convinced all her friends that she was destined by nature for an artist. The painter himself praised her correct design and perfect imitation of his coloring, and advised her father to send her to Bern to study. She spent three years in the school; at first employing herself in oil painting, but finally abandoning that for miniatures. By the time her education was completed she had reached a perfection little short of that of her teacher.

Returning to Zurich, she devoted herself to art as a profession. Her productions were taken to England, Holland, and Germany, where they were greatly admired, and her contemporaries extolled her as a second Schurmann. There was scarcely a court in the German empire from which she had not commissions. Those of Baden-Durlach and Stuttgard disputed which should possess the greatest number of her works. The Duke of Wurtemberg, Eberhard Louis, and his sister, the Margravine von Durlach, sent her large portraits to be painted in miniature.

While Anna’s fame spread throughout Germany, her very success tended to throw difficulties in the way of her artistic progress. Her father was pressed with the care of a large family, and thought his interests would be favored more by multiplying the number of his daughter’s works, than by allowing her time to finish them. He urged her continually to new enterprises. Thus depressed and tied to sordid cares, Anna lost her spirits and fell into a melancholy that threatened to destroy her health. Happily, at this time, the court of Solms Braunfels made her favorable proposals of employment. She accepted the invitation, went there with one of her brothers, and soon found she would be enabled to indulge her taste for elaborating and perfecting her paintings. She rapidly regained her cheerfulness, and became the delight and admiration of the circles in which she moved. Again her father’s avarice disturbed this agreeable state of things. He sent her an abrupt summons to return home, where he expected her to do more work for his benefit. She obeyed the command, but on the journey, made in such haste, she got a severe fall, the effects of which terminated her life in 1713, at the age of thirty-four.

Fuseli possessed a painting in oil done by Anna Wasser at the age of thirteen. He gave her praise for correctness of outline, and for spirit of coloring. She appears to have excelled most in pastoral and rural pieces, which it was her delight to paint. Her compositions were marked by great ingenuity, and were finished with exquisite delicacy.

Her literary accomplishments procured her the friendship of the most eminent scholars of her day in Germany; such as Werner, Meyer, Hubert, Steller, etc., and she corresponded with many celebrated persons. Among her female friends was Clara Eimart, already mentioned among German artists. Her manners were gentle and dignified, and her character was pure and blameless. To filial obedience she would at any time sacrifice her own inclinations; indeed she often carried her devotion to excess.

The portrait given of her shows delicate and sharply defined features. The hair is worn in Grecian style, with ringlets at the side, and braids falling on her neck. She appears surrounded with flowers, with baskets of fruit beside her.

Maria Theresa van Thielen, and her two sisters, the daughters of an artist of noble family, were instructed by him in flower-painting, the first excelling also in portraits.

CHAPTER X.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

General Expansion and Extension of Art-culture.—More Scope given to the Tendencies originated in preceding Age.—Reminiscences of past Glories of Art active during the first half of the Century.—The Flemish and Italian Schools in vogue.—Eclecticism.—Influences of the French School mingled with those of the great Masters.—The Rococo Style.—The Aggregate of Woman’s Labor greater than ever before.—Not accompanied by greater Depth.—Less Individuality discernible.—The greatest artistic Activity among Women in Germany.—In France next.—In Italy next.—In other Countries less.—Rapid Growth of Art in Berlin.—In Dresden.—Scholarship and literary Position of Women during the first half of the Century.—Poets and their Inspirations.—Princesses the Patrons of Letters.—Nothing new or striking in Art.—A Revolution in the latter half of the Century.—Instruction in Art a Branch of Education.—Dilettanti of high Rank.—Female Pupils of Painters of Note.—Mengs and Carstens.—Carstens the Founder of modern German Art.—His Style not adapted to female Talent.—A lovely Form standing between him and Mengs.—A female Stamp-cutter.—An Artist in Wax-work.—In Stucco-work.—In cutting precious Stones.—Barbara Preisler.—Other female Artists.—Fashionable Taste in Painting.—Marianna Hayd.—Miniaturists.—Anna Maria Mengs.—Her Works.—Miniature and Pastel-painting.—Flowers and Landscapes a Passion.—Imitators of Rachel Ruysch and Madame Merian.—Celebrities in Flower-painting.—Copper-engraving. Lady Artists of high Rank.—Other Devotees to Art.

During the greater part of the eighteenth century we find rather a general expansion and extension of taste and cultivation in the arts, than a concentration of effort or a more rich and earnest development of talent. The period gave more scope to the tendencies that had been originated and determined in a preceding age. Connoisseurs fed upon reminiscences of the past glories of art, and no new ideas were brought to the world’s notice till the first half of the century had rolled away.

The Flemish and Italian schools were in vogue, slightly modified, but, on the whole, scarcely changed in any essential particular; or a blending of diverse styles produced some artists who hardly deserve notice for their individual merits. A spirit of eclecticism may, indeed, be traced in the productions of the best masters of this time. The sovereigns in the domain of art had then passed away, and with the influence they still exercised was mingled that of the French school. The brilliancy and glow of Titian and Paul Veronese, the deep poetic feeling of Giorgione, the purity and tenderness of Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, the rugged grandeur of Michael Angelo, the soft, transparent loveliness of Correggio, the bright beauty of Guido and Albano, and the power and passion of the Caravaggio school, disputed the consideration of amateurs with the light and lively style, the graceful mannerism of a Watteau and a Bouché, and something of the reflective character of the German Raphael Mengs, or that of Carstens and of Dietrich.

The finished and ornate manner of France especially became popular over all the countries of Europe, exercising the same influence, in a measure, upon art that it had upon literature. Hence originated the style that has been aptly termed the Rococo—wanting in depth and warmth, indeed, but having a certain completeness of technical detail productive of happy effects.

The fresh life and earnest vigor that had marked the earlier schools were paralyzed in this, and we do not wonder that a better condition followed the reawakening of artistic feeling.

It is not to be denied that the aggregate amount of woman’s labor in the domain of art was greater during the eighteenth century than in any preceding one; indeed, the number of female artists far surpassed the collected number of those known from earliest history. So vast an increase was not according to the proportion of other vocations. It is also true that, in their efforts, as in those of the men of this period, the extension was not accompanied by greater depth, and less individuality was discernible in the talent and skill which became more generally diffused; hence the well-grounded complaint that the time was deficient in great men. Nevertheless, the sum of ability and knowledge had not diminished, though, in its manifold branchings and divisions, such might appear to be the case.

We find, therefore, a certain uniformity and mediocrity among numerous women artists of the eighteenth century, rather than eminent talent in special instances. Yet this was not wholly wanting, while the standard of excellence was elevated, and a more general spirit of emulation prevailed.

Contrary to the experience of preceding ages, we discover the greatest evidence of artistic activity among women in Germany; next to that, in France; then in Italy. The Netherlands and England may be classed together, while Spain and the Scandinavian countries are at the minimum in this respect. These proportions are not owing to chance, but correspond with the general development of art among the nations at this time.

The aspect of female culture also corresponded with national characteristics. The decorative was of rapid growth and early bloom in Prussia; Berlin, hardly mentioned heretofore, became suddenly alive with energetic talent superior to that which displayed itself in any other German city. Art sprang into luxuriance, too, at the Electoral court, and Dresden claimed no insignificant rank in the scale. France meanwhile sustained her old renown; while Nuremberg and Munich should not be slighted. But the Austrian and Rhine countries had less reason to boast; and many cities of northern Germany were in like poverty of women artists.

During the first half of the eighteenth century, the order of things differed not essentially from the close of the seventeenth; in fact, the same influences predominated, both in literature and art. The Pegnitzschäfer and other poetical orders were still in existence; the sacred poems composed by noble ladies had their imitations; female authors wrote after the established fashion, while they entered on a wider field, and partook of the new spirit breathed into German poetry. Women then became not only creators in the realm of fancy and imagination, but exercised a controlling influence, by their relations of friendship and intimacy with distinguished literary characters. Meta arose beside her Klopstock; Herder sought inspiration from his bride; by Wieland stood Sophie Delaroche; Schiller was aided by Caroline Wolzogen and Madame von Kalb; Goëthe by Madame von Stein. Princesses and the noble ladies of the land gave their patronage and protection to letters, and sought to gather round them the choice spirits of their day. This, in the beginning of the century, did Sophie Charlotte, the great Queen of Prussia; and Amalia von Weimar thus aided the richest development of German mind.

Though nothing new or striking can be said to have been accomplished in art by women during the first half of this century, the latter part witnessed a revolution in which they greatly aided to spread and deepen the growth of new ideas. It became necessary to the complete education of ladies of the higher classes, that they should possess some knowledge of art. Hagedorn mentions the fact that a teacher who could give instruction in drawing and painting could much more readily obtain a situation than one ignorant of those branches. Fashion and custom enjoined not only a degree of knowledge, but also of skill, on those who wished to be thought accomplished. There were many aristocratic dilettanti, and a few royal ladies emulated the fame of the princely dames of an older time in the pictorial crafts.

Among these may be mentioned, Anna Amalia, of Brunswick; the Archduchesses Charlotte and Maria Anna, of Austria; Duchess Sophia, of Coburg-Saalfeld; the Margravine of Baden-Durlach; the Princess Victoria, of Anhalt-Bernburg, and Elizabeth Ernestine Antonia, of Saxe-Meiningen; besides the excellent Elizabeth Christina, of Brunswick, who sought to promote the restoration of art and the advance of knowledge, for the love of Frederick, her royal husband, and who will ever be honored as the ornament of a house that henceforward showed itself ready to foster and appreciate the liberal arts.

We observe here, as before, that many painters of note had female pupils or assistants, who endeavored to carry out the ideas they originated. Dietrich, esteemed one of the best masters of the eclectic school of the eighteenth century, had his enthusiasm shared by his two sisters; Tischbein, who cultivated the French style, as Dietrich did the Dutch, found appreciative companions and co-laborers in his wife and daughter; and there were other women who strove to ennoble the eclectic system by greater purity of tone and a more ardent study of the antique. Oeser had several female pupils; and two sisters worked in modest retirement beside the greatest artist of this style—Antoine Raphael Mengs—having been taken through the same course of severe study and exercise by their pedantic father.

Carstens obtained and brought to perfection what Mengs toiled to reach and realize. The grand and comprehensive ideas of Winkelmann found in him a harmonious development. Averse to the reflective, which formed the chief characteristic of Mengs and Oeser, he was steeped in the inspiration caught from the antique ideal, and, without becoming a copyist of any style, was able to reproduce the seed from the fruitful soil of his own endowments. He may be called the founder of modern German art. His grand, bold, and ingenious style did not particularly commend itself to female talent; we do not find, therefore, that he had any disciples of the softer sex.

Between Carstens and Mengs, however, stands a lovely female form, in age midway betwixt them, as in the peculiar bent of her genius; less minute and reflective than Mengs, less grand and impressive than Carstens. It is Angelica Kauffman, the gem of all the women artists of this period; preserving the forms of the antique in her own delicate, elegant, and charming style; wielding her power with such gracious sweetness that all who behold are attracted to render the homage of heartfelt admiration.

It was now that fresh vitality was infused into German art by a contemplation of the antique, while the forms of humanity and nature were observed with greater freedom. Chodowiecki pursued this system, and was one of the most successful artists de genre; while his daughter, his pupil, Mademoiselle Bohren, and Kobell’s scholar, Crescentia Schott, were instrumental in preparing the way for the advance of painting in the style lately introduced.

If we turn now from a general and hasty survey to the notice of particular branches, it becomes a duty to record the names of some women who practiced the most difficult and laborious of the plastic arts. One of these was stamp-cutting. One who first evinced skill in this kind of work was Rosa Elizabeth Schwindel of Leipzig, who plied her art in Berlin at the commencement of the eighteenth century. A beautiful medal of Queen Sophia Charlotte, executed by her, is preserved. She was accomplished also in the cutting of gems and in modeling in wax. In wax-work, Elizabeth Ross of Salzburg, Dorothea Menn of Cologne, and Madame Weis, probably of Strasburg, were noted. As a stone-cutter, Charlotte Rebecca Schild of Hanau worked in Paris. Rosina Pflauder, in Salzburg, assisted her husband in stucco-work.

In the same kind of work, as well as in painting, Maria Juliana Wermuth of Gotha displayed both industry and skill. In cutting precious stones Susanna Maria Dorsch gained some celebrity. She was born at Nuremberg in 1701, and married the painter Solomon Graf, taking the noted painter and engraver, J. J. Preisler, for her second husband. The kind of work in which she excelled had been practiced by her father and grandfather, and her application was remarkable. A vast number of gems were cut by her hand, and her industry was not without its reward in the gaining of great reputation. Medals were stamped in honor of her.

Her daughters, Anna Felicitas and Maria Anna Preisler, employed themselves in the same kind of work, without possessing, however, the variety of talent or achieving the brilliant success of Barbara Julia, the daughter of Johann Daniel Preisler of Nuremberg. She was skilled in various branches of art; she could model in wax, and work in ivory and alabaster, and added painting and copper-engraving to the list of her accomplishments. She married a painter named Oeding, and died in Brunswick before 1764. Several women, who were well known at the time as modelers in wax, and who occupied themselves in engraving and stone-cutting, might be named. Amid a number of names, necessarily passed over, may be added those of the beautiful and variously-gifted Mary Anna Treu of Bamberg, and her relative, Rosalie Treu, the wife of the painter Dom, who afterward went to take the veil in a convent at Mentz, giving up her resolution four days before the completion of her novitiate, to return to the world and her native Bamberg.

Henriette Felicitas Tassaert, the daughter of the famous painter, painted in pastel, and engraved in copper admirably. Mademoiselle Nohren, a pupil of Chodowiecki in Berlin, became a member of the academy.

It was natural that the greater number of artists of this period should betake themselves to painting. We will glance first at some branches of this, cultivated especially by women who did not achieve any thing noteworthy in historical and genre painting. The fashionable taste of the day ran much upon miniatures and pastel portraits, and many women made themselves accomplished in this species of work, as well as in enamel-painting, as far less study and application were required than in the higher branches of the art.

Marianna Hayd, a somewhat celebrated miniature-painter, was born in Dantzic in 1688. She pursued her profession in Berlin, and, after her marriage in 1705 to the painter Werner, in Augsburg, her talents procured for her the honor of a call to the electoral court of Saxony in Dresden, where she received an appointment, and died in 1753.

Another fair artist in miniatures was Anna Rosina Liscewska, who also worked in Berlin, where she was born in 1716. She achieved no mean success, and in 1769 was admitted a member of the academy in Dresden.

The same city was adorned by the elegant labors of Anna Maria Mengs, whom Dr. Guhl calls “the most gifted of the three sisters,” and who is styled by Fiorillo “the daughter of the Raphael of his age.” She received early instruction from her father; came to Dresden in 1751, and devoted herself to painting—chiefly portraits. She made her first journey to Rome in 1777, and there married a copper-engraver, Manuel Salvador Carmona. She had many children, but continued to exercise her art while taking care of them. She produced several pastel and miniature paintings. Her chief works, done for the King of Spain and the Infant Don Luis, are in Madrid, in the Academy of San Fernando, of which she was chosen a member. She died in Madrid, 1793.

As miniature and pastel painting are peculiarly adapted to female hands by the delicate and cleanly handling required, so flowers and landscapes seem to present objects and scenes of beauty congenial to the taste of the sex. It can not be wondered at, therefore, that these branches found several cultivators. Flower and landscape painting became a passion among the German women who could be classed as amateurs or connoisseurs. Hagedorn mentions, in his work on painting, as a distinguished patroness of these, a Countess von Oppendorf. With her may be named the Countess von Truchsetz-Waldburg, the Princess Anna Paar, and others of no special note. Maria Dorothea Dietrich, the sister of the Dresden painter, and Crescentia Schott, already mentioned, labored professionally in the art.

Many were the fair painters who imitated the famous Rachel Ruysch. The representation of animals and objects in natural history became a favorite style, and the celebrity of Madame Merian stirred up many of her sex to emulate her success. The influence of example wrought as powerfully here as in every other matter.

In the early part of this century lived at Lubeck Catharina Elizabeth Heinecke, born in 1685, an enthusiastic patroness of flower-painting, and the mother of “the famous Lubeck child.” We may mention also, amid a cloud of artists to be passed unnoticed, a family at Nuremberg, named Dietsch, that included three sisters of talent and accomplishment. Catharina Treu, born at Bamberg in 1742, obtained celebrity in the same line. She studied in Düsseldorf, attracted thither, doubtless, by the works of Rachel Ruysch, and received the appointment of cabinet-painter from Karl Theodore at Mannheim. Thence she returned to Düsseldorf to take the place of professor in the academy of art in that place.

To the same period belongs Caroline Frederika Friedrich, the first female pensionnaire who exercised her art as member of the academy in Dresden. Gertrude Metz of Cologne was also a disciple of Rachel Ruysch in Düsseldorf. Of a remaining host we name only the sisters Anna and Elizabeth Fuessli (Fuseli), who painted in the style of their father, and copied from nature the flowers and insects of Switzerland.

Copper-engraving was at this period practiced by a great number of women, and patronized by many fair and princely dilettanti. The Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, already named, possessed skill in this branch. We may now leave all these, to look at the women who distinguished themselves in the more commanding and elevated styles of historical and genre painting. Here appears more evidence of individuality in the treatment of particular subjects.

Place must be accorded first to ladies of the highest rank. Anna Amalia of Brunswick was a noted painter. Maria Anna, Archduchess of Austria, and daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, occupied her leisure hours in genre-painting and etching, and by her skill obtained considerable repute. Charlotte, Archduchess of Austria, was a member of the academy at Vienna, and as Queen of the Two Sicilies received instruction in Naples from Mura. The Duchess Sophia of Coburg-Saalfeld, besides her paintings, left some proofs of her skill in engraving toward the close of the century.

To these illustrious names may be added others who, like those royal dames, devoted themselves to art, and gained high appreciation from connoisseurs. Maria Elizabeth Wildorfer of Innspruck was busied in the same profession a long time in Rome, where she painted portraits and church pictures under the patronage of a cardinal. Maria Theresa Riedel of Dresden, made pensionnaire of the academy there in 1764, occupied herself in copying Dutch genre-paintings. Rosina, another sister of the painter Dietrich, copied a number of old paintings. She married the painter Boehme, and lived in Berlin till 1770.

Anna Dorothea, one of the sisters Liszeuska, born in 1722, was elected, on account of her portraits and historical works, a member of the Parisian Academy. She died in Berlin as Madame Therbusch, in 1782. Jacoba Werbronk worked in the latter part of the century, and died in 1801 in the Cloister Iseghen. But none of the women artists of this time can be compared in point of genius or celebrity to the one of whom we are now to speak—one of the loveliest, most gifted, and most estimable of all the women who have secured immortal fame by the labors of the pencil.

CHAPTER XI.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Angelica Kauffman.—Parentage and Birth.—Beautiful Scenery of her native Land.—Early Impulse to Painting.—Adopts the Style of Mengs.—Her Residence in Como.—Instruction.—Music or Painting?—Beauty of Nature around her.—Angelica’s Letter about Como.—Escape from Cupid.—Removal to Milan.—Introduction to great Works of Art.—Studies of the Lombard Masters.—The Duke of Modena her Patron.—Portrait of the Duchess of Carrara.—Success.—Return to Schwarzenberg.—Painting in Fresco.—Homely Life of the Artist.—Milan and Florence.—Rome.—Acquaintance with Winkelmann.—Angelica paints his Portrait.—Goes to Naples.—Studies in Rome.—In Venice.—Acquaintance with noble English Families.—In London.—A brilliant Career.—Fuseli’s Attachment to her.—Appointed Professor in the Academy of Arts.—Romantic Incident of her Travel in Switzerland.—The weary Travelers.—The libertine Lord.—The Maiden’s Indignation.—Unexpected Meeting in the aristocratic Circles of London.—The Lord’s Suit renewed.—Rejected with Scorn.—His Rank and Title spurned.—Revenge.—The Impostor in Society.—Angelica deceived into Marriage.—She informs the Queen.—Her Father’s Suspicions.—Discovery of the Cheat.—The Wife’s Despair.—The false Marriage annulled.—The Queen’s Sympathy.—Stories of Angelica’s Coquetry.—Marriage with Zucchi.—Return to Italy.—Her Father’s Death.—Residence in Rome.—Circle of literary Celebrities.—Angelica’s Works.—Criticisms.—Opinions of Mengs and Fuseli.—The Portraits in the Pitti Gallery.—Death of Zucchi.—Invasion of Italy.—Angelica’s Melancholy.—Journey and Return.—Her Death and Funeral.