MARGARET, COUNTESS OF LUCAN,
possessed a remarkable talent for copying miniatures and illuminations. She completed a series of embellishments of Shakspeare’s historical plays, in five folio volumes, now preserved in the library at Althorp. For sixteen years she devoted herself to the pursuit, indulging in “the pleasurable toil” of illustrating that great work. She commenced this enterprise when fifty years of age, and ended it at sixty-six. Walpole says: “Whatever of taste, beauty, and judgment in decoration, by means of landscapes, flowers, birds, heraldic ornaments and devices, etc., could dress our immortal bard in a yet more fascinating form, has been accomplished by a noble hand, which undertook a Herculean task, and with a true delicacy and finish of execution that has been rarely equaled.”
Lady Lucan also copied the most exquisite works of Isaac and Peter Oliver, Hoskins, and Cooper; “with genius,” says her admiring friend, “that almost depreciated those masters;” and “transferring the vigor of Raphael to her copies in water-colors.” She died in 1815.
The Countess of Tott exhibited in 1804 her portrait of the famous Elfi Bey. Lord Orford speaks of Mrs. Delany’s skill in painting and imitating flowers with cuttings of colored paper. This lady is mentioned by Madame d’Arblay, in her Diary, as the queen’s friend, the wife of Patrick Delany, who was the intimate friend of Dean Swift.
Among a host of minor women artists may be mentioned Mary Benwell, who painted portraits and miniatures in oil and crayons, exhibited from 1762 to 1783. She married Code, who was in the army, and purchased rank for him. He was stationed at Gibraltar, where he died. Mrs. Code retired from her profession in 1800. Miss Anna Ladd, skilled in the same branch, died in 1770. Agatha van der Myn also painted flowers, fruits, and birds in England.
Anna Smyters, the wife of a sculptor and architect, acquired celebrity for her miniatures and water-color paintings. One, representing a wind-mill with sails spread, a miller with his sack on his shoulder, a carriage and horse, and a road leading to a village, was complete, of a size so small that it could be covered by a grain of corn.
Miss Anna Jemima Provis was said to have made known to some English artists the receipt for coloring used by the great Venetian masters. It had been brought from Italy by her grandfather.
Mrs. Dards opened a new exhibition with flower-paintings, in the richest colors. They were exact imitations of nature, done with fish-bones.
Mrs. Hoadley, wife of the Bishop of Winchester, was well skilled in painting. Caroline Watson was eminent in engraving. She was born in London, 1760. Receiving instruction from her father, she engraved several subjects in mezzotinto and in the dotted manner. Her productions were said to possess great merit. Miss Hartley, who etched admirably, preceded her.
Maria Catharine Prestel was the wife of a German painter and engraver. She aided him in some of his best plates, particularly landscapes. The marriage was not happy, and the pair separated. Madame Prestel came to England in 1786, where she engraved prints in a style surpassed by no artist for spirit and delicacy. She made etchings, and finished in aquatinta in a fine picturesque manner. She died in London in 1794.
Mrs. Grace exhibited her works seven years in the Society of Artists. They were chiefly portraits in oil, rather heavy in coloring. She attempted a historical subject in 1767: Antigonus, Seleucus, and Stratonice. Her residence was in London.
Mrs. Wright, the daughter of Mr. Guise—one of the gentlemen of his majesty’s Chapel Royal at St. James’s, and master of the choristers at Westminster—was a successful painter in miniature. She married, unfortunately, a French emigrant, who shortly afterward left her, and went to France, where he died. Her second husband was Mr. Wright, a miniature-painter. She died in 1802.
Fiorillo also mentions Betty Langley, Miss Noel, Miss Linwood, Miss Bell, Madame Beaurepas, and the eldest daughter of Smirke the academician.
Walpole mentions Elizabeth Neal as a distinguished paintress, who went to Holland. She painted flowers so admirably, that she was said to rival the famous Zeghers.
Among English flower-painters should not be forgotten Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, Miss Gray, Anna Ladd, Anna Lee, and Mary Lawrence, who busied herself with a splendid work on roses—painting and engraving the illustrations.
Catherine Read painted beautiful family scenes, and obtained considerable reputation as a painter of portraits, both in oil and crayon. A crayon, in the possession of a lady of New York, was recognized as hers by an eminent American painter. She lived near St. James’s, and frequently sent pieces to the exhibition. Several mezzotint prints after her pictures were published. In 1770 she went to the East Indies, staid a few years, and returned to England. Her niece, Miss Beckson, also an artist, who went with her to the East Indies, afterward married a baronet.
Some of Anna Trevingard’s pictures were engraved. Miss Drax and Miss Martin engraved from Tomkins and Der Petit; Miss Morland and Catharine Mary Fanshawe drew and engraved twenty pictures of historical scenes. The zealous and industrious Mary Spilsbury’s studies from country life, and particularly those in which she represented her rural scenes and sports of children, have been reproduced in engravings.
It is certainly surprising that engraving and flower-painting did not boast at this time a greater number of distinguished followers.
It now becomes our task to linger a moment over the history of a paintress whose genius and attainments won for her an enviable reputation, and whose life experience illustrates the condition and circumstances of art amid the higher classes of English society.