EMMA STEBBINS.
Few lady artists of this or any country have been surrounded with circumstances more favorable to the development of genius. Her childhood was passed among those who possessed culture and refined taste, and she was familiar with the elegant adornments of life. She learned early to embody the delicate creations of her fancy in song or pictures, as well as to imitate what pleased her. Her family and nearest circle of friends were ready—as is not always the case—to appreciate and encourage her efforts. But, though she had no early difficulties to struggle with, the steep and rugged path to eminent success could not be smoothed by the hand of affection, and she has gone through all the lessoning and exercise of powers demanded for the achievement of greatness, as well from those favored of fortune as those to whom the capricious goddess has proved a step-dame.
Miss Stebbins is a native of the city of New York, where, till within a few years, she employed the rare skill she had acquired in different branches of art for the gratification of her friends or for charitable purposes. Several artists noticed in the beautiful specimens which were shown in various circles as her work the evidence of more than ordinary talent. Among these was Henry Inman, the distinguished painter. He invited the young girl to visit his studio, and offered to give her instruction in oil-painting. She had never before taken lessons, and was pleased with the prospect of study. She improved under the directions of her teacher, and to this aid some of her friends attributed the masterly correctness and grace displayed in her portraits, and for which afterward her crayon sketches were so much admired.
One of Miss Stebbins’s early works was a volume to which she gave the title, “A Book of Prayer.” It contains some beautiful specimens of her poetry, but is chiefly remarkable for its exquisite illuminations. It was one of the first among the efforts to revive that style of illustration; and the originality, grace, and beauty of the designs, with the delicate and elaborate finish of the execution, made it quite a curiosity of art. Some other books were illuminated by Miss Stebbins in the same manner.
The love of art in the child of genius “grows by what it feeds on,” and claims an undivided devotion to its pursuits. Perhaps no kind of knowledge is so fascinating when its fruits are tasted. Miss Stebbins found no charm in the social pleasures at her command which could draw her attention from painting. She finally resolved on an exclusive consecration of her talents to art, making it the sole business of her life. She determined to go to Rome.
Several of her crayon portraits, executed in Rome, received the highest encomiums from acknowledged judges in that city. A copy she made of the “St. John” of Du Bœuf, and one from a painting in the gallery of the Louvre, representing a “Girl Dictating a Love-letter,” were noted among her oil-paintings. Her “Boy and Bird’s Nest” was done in the style of Murillo. Her pastel-painting of “Two Dogs” has been highly praised.
Almost every branch of the imitative art has been at different periods cultivated by Miss Stebbins, and her success proves the scope and versatility of her talent. Besides painting in oil and water colors, she has practiced drawing on wood and carving wood, modeling in clay, and working in marble. It is probably in the difficult art of sculpture that she will leave to America the works by which she will be most widely known.
She profited, like Miss Hosmer, by the counsels and supervision of Gibson, and the careful instruction of Akers. A work from her chisel, in the spring of 1859, commanded the highest suffrages. Mr. Heckscher, a large proprietor of coal-mines in the United States, had requested Miss Stebbins to execute for him two typical statues—one of Industry, the other of Commerce. The figure of Industry is completed, and has been represented by the artist, with graceful taste, as a miner. A critic says:
“The figure is that of an athletic, admirably-proportioned youth, who bears upon his right shoulder the pick, and in the front of his picturesque slouched hat the miner’s lamp. The weight of the body is thrown easily and naturally upon the right leg, and the left hand rests with the carelessness of manly strength upon a block of marble, drilled and hewn in the manner of a mass of coal. The symmetrical vigor of the figure, admirable as it is, is not more admirable than the lofty, ingenuous beauty of the classic head and face, poised in an attitude equally unforced and striking, upon the graceful, well-rounded throat. The drapery of the full shirt, open at the neck and close-gathered about the waist, is managed with particular skill; and while the whole figure reminds one strikingly of one of those magnificent Gothic kings whose images stand in the vestibule of the Museo Borbonico, at Naples, the spirit and air of it are purely modern and American. It is, in truth, one of the most felicitous combinations of every-day national truth with the enduring and cosmopolite truth of art ever seen, and it is a work which does equal credit to the sex and the country of the artist.”
Miss Stebbins has taken up her residence permanently in Rome, amid those surroundings and associations sought by artists of all nations as most favorable to their progress. She has been for some time engaged in modeling in clay several groups which, though as yet unfinished, have been criticised favorably by connoisseurs and friends.