MARIE D’ORLEANS.
One in particular, of illustrious station and royal blood, too early snatched away by death, has conferred lustre upon the whole class by whom the difficult and delicate art has been cultivated.
Marie of Orleans, the daughter of Louis Philippe, is thus mentioned in Mrs. Lee’s “Sketches.”
“She was born at Palermo in 1813, and was married in 1837 to Duke Alexander of Wurtemberg. Her health was impaired, and she went to Pisa in the hope of recovering, but died there in 1839. Her statue of the Maid of Orleans is of the size of life, and is placed at Versailles; it is full of animation and spirit. But her last work, an angel in white marble, seems to be the result of inspiration. It is in the chapel of Sablonville, on the sarcophagus of her brother. It may be deeply lamented that the Princess Marie did not live to give additional proofs of the capability of her sex for works of sculpture. Her early death frustrated the efforts of a genius which bade fair to compete with the graceful forms of Canova or Flaxman.”
Mrs. Lee says, “We were much gratified by seeing a font in the church St. Germain de l’Auxerrois in Paris, by Madame Lamartine, the wife of the poet and historian; the font is surrounded by marble angels, who rest on its margin. It is a beautiful record of her taste, ingenuity, and benevolence.”
Paris at this period, more emphatically than ever, was the centre of active efforts among artists. “Paris—c’est la France” was an expression as true as in the literary and political life of the nation. This was advantageous for the development of talent, and the advance of skill in details; bringing rival merits more keenly into conflict, and furnishing the student with more varied means of instruction.
Painting on porcelain became much practiced by French women in the early part of the present century. Amélie Legris was skilled in it, as well as in painting in oil, miniatures, and aquarell.
Madame Jacotot was noted for her beautiful paintings on porcelain. She was sent to Italy by the French government to copy the paintings of Raphael. She lived in style, was in much society, and was distinguished for her wit.
Madame Ducluzeau is the wife of a physician, and has gained considerable celebrity as an artist. The Comtesse de Mirbel painted miniatures. Louis Philippe, and many persons of his court, and the nobility, sat to her. She was employed to copy paintings for cadeaus to royalty.
Madame Aizelin had some charming pieces in pastel in the Paris Exhibition, 1857. Transparency of tissue was never better rendered than in her gauze drapery. Madame Fontaine, a pupil of Cogniet, excelled in the department of still-life. Mademoiselle Augustine Aumont had twelve panels, giving the flowers of each month. Miss Mutrie, Mademoiselle Alloin, pupil of Rosa Bonheur, and many other women, were praised for beautiful groups of fruit and flowers. In this branch, as in portraits, miniatures, and porcelain-painting, the palm of excellence is awarded to lady artists. The productions of Madame Herbalin were conspicuous for delicacy and purity of execution and coloring.
Casting a glance at the condition of art at this period in Germany, it is noticeable that women took part with enthusiasm in almost every branch. We have observed the grounding of modern art in this country by Carstens. He went back to the purer forms of the antique, as his French contemporary, David, had done; and his restoration of purity, vigor, and tenderness, found earnest sympathy among his fair countrywomen. A style expressing the heart’s deepest feelings, and the religious veneration which had become traditional, could not fail to meet the aspirations of noble-minded female artists.
Among artist-women who flourished at the close of the eighteenth and in the present century we may mention Mademoiselle Sonnenschein, who died in 1816, a member of the Academy in Stuttgard. We should not drop, among minor names, that of Sophie Ludovika Simanowitz, born Reighenbach, whose portrait of Schiller is well known.
Magdalena Tischbein, a flower-painter, the daughter of a noted artist, married the court painter Strack, of Oldenburg, in 1795.
The Princess of Saxe-Meiningen was noted for her beautiful pictures illustrating Bible history.
Mary Anna Bösenbacher, of Cologne, an engraver, was engaged in the service of the Elector Max Francis.
Barbara Krafft, born Steiner, of Iglau, painted a number of genre-pictures of life size, and in this branch was the precursor of Madame Jerichow-Baumann. She died in Bamberg, in 1825, aged sixty.
One who was busy in Rome at this time was Maria Ellenrieder. She had before visited the Academy in Munich for the purpose of educating herself in historical painting. In her works she sought to revive the spirit of ancient German art, and her longings drew her to the city which has long been the resort of ambitious art-students, where we find her in 1820. Among her productions are many altar-pieces, representing the Holy Family. Some have been lithographed. Since 1825 she has lived in Germany, where she has completed many works, and has practiced the art of etching.
Louise Caroline Seidler was at the same time in Rome. Born in Jena, she studied painting in Munich under Professor Von Langer, afterward going to Italy to profit by the works of Pietro Perugino and Raphael. She received the appointment of court painter in Weimar, and executed several pictures that belong to the romantic genre school. A splendid fruit of her study of the old masters is a collection of heads taken from celebrated pictures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These were lithographed by Von Schmeller, and published in Weimar in 1836.
Among the German artists in Rome at the same period was Electrine Stuntz, afterward Baroness von Freiberg. She was the daughter of a landscape-painter of Strasburg, and devoted herself to historical pieces. She was in the Eternal City during 1821 and the following year, and was elected an honorary member of the Academy of San Luca, occupying a position similar to that held by Angelica Kauffman. Her works have a serious character, and Madonna pictures abound in them. About 1823 she was married to Baron von Freiberg, and thenceforward divided her cares between her family and her art. Several of her etchings were greatly admired, and brought her high reputation.
Madame Caroline von Schroeter belongs to the same period. She became distinguished in Rome in 1826 by her beautiful miniature-paintings, and was there chosen member of the Academy of San Luca.
A few female artists belonged to the Düsseldorf school, while in Weimar they were indefatigable in supporting the ancient reputation. But the greatest number is to be found in Berlin. The impetus there given in various departments of learning, and the patronage of royal connoisseurs, with the superior cultivation of the people, had the happiest effect, and brought out the richest bloom of female talent. No branch of modern art has there been neglected by women, and several have displayed a genius for sculpture. Dilettanti of the highest rank have turned their attention to painting; and those who have pursued art as a profession, from dignified history-pieces down to flowers and landscapes, have met with encouraging success. In flower-painting and arabesques some very important improvements have recently been made.
In the other cities of Germany, where women have successfully engaged in such pursuits, less has been done. Few have taken to the profession in Vienna, though Dresden has maintained the old repute in this particular, and her Academy is to this day a genial nursery of female talent.
Italy, the birthplace of the fine arts, has experienced the change common to all mundane things, and the participation of her women in art is by no means so great and significant as in earlier ages. Yet a few names may be ranked with those who have gone before. Turin, Milan, and Rome have each produced fair artists of distinction in various branches, and their success promises to open the way to future enterprise.
Not so fair is the prospect in Spain and among the Scandinavian nations. In England, on the other hand, both sculpture and painting have been successfully cultivated during the present century. We may mention, in passing, Fanny Corbeaux, an artist and distinguished Biblical scholar, born in 1812. When she was only fifteen years of age her father suddenly lost his property, and became indigent. The daughter had received only superficial instruction in drawing, but determined to use her small skill to support her father and herself. With the ardent spirit of youth she threw herself into the undertaking, sparing herself no severe labor, and so well directed were her efforts that, before the end of the year, she obtained a silver medal for water-color drawings. Within the next three years she received another similar token of approbation, and the gold medal of the Society of Arts.
All this time she had been her own instructor. She afterward painted small pictures in oil and water-colors, but confined herself chiefly to portraits. Her superiority in Biblical scholarship was shown by a valuable series of letters on the Physical Geography of the Exodus. She published another series entitled “The Rephaim.”
Fanny is described as being small, with figure slightly bent, but cheerful and charming in manner. Her mother, living with her, is said to be lively and agile in movement.
Miss Merrifield is the author of a treatise on the Art of Painting.
A “Society of Female Artists” was established in London in 1857. Among its members, and now secretary to the association, is Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, the wife of the English Consul at Teneriffe. She has great celebrity as a water-color artist. Her style is dashing and vigorous, but highly finished; her coloring bright, transparent, pure, and sparkling, though something deficient in depth and middle tint. Mrs. Murray has lately published a book entitled “Sixteen Years of an Artist’s Life, etc.” She says of herself: “A vagabond from a baby, I left England at eighteen, independent, having neither master nor money. My pencil was both to me, and, at the same time, my strength, my comfort, and my intense delight.” Honorable Mrs. Monckton Mills, Miss Louisa Rayner, Miss Florence Caxton, and others, are mentioned with praise. Mrs. Benham Hay is known as the illustrator of Longfellow’s Poems; and Barbara Leigh Smith, an admirable writer, is an excellent artist. Of Miss Mutrie’s work Mr. Ruskin says: “It is always beautiful;” and Miss Howitt and Mrs. Carpenter are noted as artists. Many whose names are now beginning to be familiar have hardly yet done justice to their own powers.
The Netherlands have done their share during the present century, preserving the old Dutch reputation, and producing a number of women who have made themselves independent by the exercise of skill in different departments of art.
The encouragement Goëthe has given, in his observations on the women artists of his day, is applicable to those of the present. They have taken more firm hold, and manifested yet more ability in the profession. If many of them have been deficient in creative power, they have shown themselves capable of the highest excellence in the tender, the graceful, the pathetic, the ideal, and in the delicacy and quick perception, which often achieves so much, as by intuition. Dr. Guhl regards the indications of the present age as exceedingly promising, and urges women to enlarged ambition and activity. Severe exertions are demanded, but when was any success worth having commanded without them? The time is now ripe for their emulation of their most eminent rivals of the other sex, not by laying aside womanly delicacy, but by labors entirely consistent with that true modesty which will ever be the most attractive ornament of the sex. History is the great teacher of the present; and what we have seen of the achievements of by-gone ages is so full of encouragement, that it is but reasonable to look for still greater triumphs in the wider arena now opened, than have yet crowned the genius or the persevering industry of woman.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Felicie de Fauveau.—Parentage.—Her Mother a Legitimist.—The Daughter’s Inheritance of Loyalty.—Removals.—Felicie’s Studies.—Learns to Model.—Resolves to be a Sculptor.—Labor becoming to a Gentlewoman.—Her first Works.—Early Triumphs.—Social Circle in Paris.—Evening Employments.—Revival of a peculiar Taste.—Mediæval Fashions.—The bronze Lamp.—Equestrian Sketch.—Effect of the Revolution of 1830.—The two Felicies leave Paris.—A rural Conspiracy.—A domiciliary Visit.—Escape of the Ladies.—Discovery and Capture.—The Stratagem at the Inn.—Escape of Madame in Disguise.—Imprisonment of Mademoiselle.—Works in Prison.—Return to Paris.—Politics again.—Felicie banished.—Breaks up her Studio.—Poverty and Privation.—Residence in Florence.—Brighter Days.—Character of Felicie.—Personal Appearance.—Her Dwelling and Studio.—Her Works.—The casting of a bronze Statue.—Industry and Retirement.—“A good Woman and a great Artist.”—Rosa Bonheur.—Her Birth in Bordeaux.—Her Father.—Rosa a Dunce in Childhood.—Her Parrot.—Rambles.—The Spanish Poet.—Removal to Paris.—Revolution and Misfortune.—Death of Madame Bonheur.—The Children at School.—Rosa detests Books and loves Roaming.—Remarriage of Bonheur.—Rosa a Seamstress.—Hates the Occupation.—Prefers turning the Lathe.—Her Unhappiness.—Placed at a Boarding-school.—Her Pranks and Caricatures.—Abhorrence of Study.—Mortification at her Want of fine Clothes.—Resolves to achieve a Name and a Place in the World.—Discontent and Gloom.—Return home.—Left to herself.—Works in the Studio.—Her Vocation apparent.—Studies at the Louvre.—Her Ardor and Application.—The Englishman’s Prophecy.—Rosa vowed to Art.—Devoted to the Study of Animals.—Excursions in the Country in search of Models.—Visits the Abattoirs.—Study of various Types.—Visits the Museums and Stables.—Resorts to the horse and cattle Fairs in male Attire.—Curious Adventures.—Anatomical Studies.—Advantages of her Excursions.—Her Father her only Teacher.—The Family of Artists.—Rosa’s pet Birds and Sheep.—Her first Appearance.—Rising Reputation.—Takes the gold Medal.—Proclaimed the new Laureat.—Death of her Father.—Rosa Directress of the School of Design.—Her Sister a Professor.—“The Horse-market.”—Rosa’s Paintings.—Bestows her Fortune on others.—Her Farm.—Drawings presented to Charities.—Demand for her Paintings.—Her Right to the Cross of the Legion of Honor.—The Emperor’s Refusal to grant it to a Woman.—Description of her Residence and her Studio.—Rosa found asleep.—Her personal Appearance.—Dress.—Her Character.—Her Industry.—Mademoiselle Micas.—Mountain Rambles.—Rosa’s Visit to Scotland.—Her Life in the Mountains.—At the Spanish Posada.—Threatened Starvation.—Cooking Frogs.—The Muleteers.—Rosa’s Scotch Terrier.—Her Resolution never to marry.