ROSALBA CARRIERA.
Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice in 1675. Her father held an office under government, which occupied his whole time; but he, as well as his father, had been a painter. He loved art, and encouraged his child in her early fancies. Her first childish work was at point de Venise lace. She seemed to care little for the ordinary amusements of young people, but passed her leisure time in drawing. She tried to copy one of her father’s designs for the head of a sonnet. A student of art, who chanced to see this piece of work, showed it to his master, who instantly perceived the genius of the child artist; and, foreseeing the excellence to which she would attain, and wishing to encourage her to persevere, gave her other designs to copy.
Rosalba was desolate when this friend left Venice; but a Venetian banker, who had noticed her proficiency, lent her some heads in pastel of Baroche. These studies vastly improved her; and her father, then satisfied of his daughter’s possession of rare talents, consented that she should take lessons from Antonio Nazari, who was eminent as a pastel-painter. The cavalier Diamantini, distinguished for the freshness of his pencil, also gave her instruction.
Her most valuable knowledge of the technical part of painting, which gave her the mastery and command of her art that marked her productions, was acquired under the tuition of Antonio Balestra. Finally, she obtained from her kinsman, Antonio Pellegrini, a knowledge of the details of miniature-painting, to which the advice of a lady friend first directed her, and in which branch she acquired rare skill. She would willingly have pursued this, but the weakness of her sight compelled her to abandon it, and take to pastel-painting, in which she obtained the greatest celebrity—attaining, Zanetti says, the highest grade of perfection.
Her miniatures were noted particularly for severe accuracy of drawing, united with rare softness and delicacy of touch; they had the perfection of proportion, and the brilliancy and warmth of coloring for which her pastels were remarkable. Her tints were blended with great tenderness; her heads had a lovely expression of truth and nature.
Her talents met with due appreciation and honor while yet in their bloom of promise. She was celebrated in her native city as the “companion of the muse of painting,” and “the ornament of her sex and of the Venetian school.” Zanetti speaks of her with high praise in his “Storia della Pittura Veneziana.” Works evincing her extraordinary ability were shown at most of the courts of Europe. She was invited to Paris and Vienna to practice her profession there, and was elected to membership in the academies of Paris, Bologna, and Rome. Her miniature and pastel paintings were sent to the institutions which conferred this honor upon her. The King of Denmark came to Venice, and, having heard of Rosalba, expressed a curiosity to see her. After consulting Balestra, she presented to her royal visitor some portraits of Venetian ladies of rank whom he had admired, receiving from his majesty in return a very costly diamond. She also played and sang for his amusement with her two sisters, one of whom performed on the violin.
She was invited by royalty to paint the Emperor Charles and the imperial court; also the King of France. The Grand-Duke of Tuscany placed her portrait in his gallery; it is painted in pastel, with one of her sisters. The style is noble and sustained; the expression is true, and the flesh-tints are so admirable, the face seems scarcely to want a soul. Augustus III., King of Poland, was her special patron; and in Modena she painted portraits of the reigning family.
None of these, or similar honors, had power to turn her head nor to corrupt her heart. Although a daughter of Venice, then the most luxurious and licentious city in Europe, the deep seriousness, and even enthusiastic melancholy of her character—dispositions that find expression in many of her works—kept her aloof from contact with vice, and her moral purity and worth were as conspicuous and as universally recognized as her genius. Her own house at Venice was adorned with portraits and original compositions. This valuable collection she sold at a high price to the King of Poland, who placed them in a special cabinet of his palace in Dresden.
In the bloom of her career and her fame, Rosalba accompanied her brother-in-law Pellegrini to France. She remained a year at the house of M. Crozat. Two portraits of the king were done by her in pastel, and one in miniature, besides a victoire for a snuff-box which his majesty gave to Madame de Ventadour.
Several groups and demi-figures, designed by Pellegrini and executed by Rosalba, are preserved in Paris, with many heads in pastel done for Crozat. Many of her symbolical pictures—such as the Muses, Sciences, Seasons, etc.—were purchased by English travelers. Her crayon-drawings were distinguished by softness and life-like freshness. She became a member of the Paris Academy in October, 1720. Her tableau de reception was a Muse in pastel. The connoisseurs esteemed her portraits for their perfect likeness, delicacy of touch, wonderful lightness, peculiar grace, and admirable coloring and expression. They were unrivaled of their kind.
An anecdote has been mentioned of a lady of rank who wished to study painting under Rosalba, but knew she could not be prevailed on to take pupils. The lady presented herself in the disguise of a maid-servant, and desired employment at the house of the distinguished paintress. Rosalba was pleased with her appearance, and at once engaged her services. While faithfully performing her tasks, the lady incessantly watched the proceedings of the artist; and, by dint of careful observation, succeeded in learning much of the art. Rosalba noticed the extraordinary quickness of her maid in these matters; and, willing to give to native talent all the aid in her power, invited the girl to observe her while painting, and gave her valuable instruction. The secret was at last discovered. The lady became afterward an artist so skillful in miniatures, that she received an appointment from a German prince as painter at his court.
An Italian writes concerning her: “Nature had endowed Rosalba with lofty aspirations and a passionate soul, and her heart yearned for that response which her absence of personal attractions failed to win. She was aware of her extreme plainness; and had she ignored it, the Emperor Charles XI. enlightened her, when, turning to Bertoli, a court artist, who presented her in Vienna, he said, ‘She may be clever, Bertoli mio, this painter of thine, but she is remarkably ugly.’ But Rosalba, even if annoyed, could well afford to smile, for Charles XI. was the ugliest of men.”
While in France, Rosalba wrote a journal which was entitled “Diario degli anni 1720 e 1721. Scritto da Rosalba Carriera.” It appeared in Venice in 1793, with notes by Giovanni Vianelli, who had a fine collection of her paintings.
From Paris she went laden with honors to the imperial court at Vienna, where, besides the emperor and empress, she painted the archduchesses and others of the court. The King of Poland had a number of her pastels, which were highly valued.
Zanetti remarks: “Much of interest may be said of this celebrated and highly-gifted woman, whose spirit—in the midst of her triumphs and the brightest visions of happiness—was weighed down with the anticipation of a heavy calamity. On one occasion—when she had painted a portrait of herself, with the brow wreathed with gloomy leaves, significant of death—her friends asked why she had done this. She replied that the representation was an image of her life, and that her end would be tragic, according to the meaning here shadowed forth. This portrait was afterward in the possession of Giambattista Sartori, a brother of her famous pupil Felicità Sartori. He preserved it as a sacred relic. His sister married Von Hoffmann, and painted with much success at the court of the Elector of Saxony.”
It seemed, indeed, that the presentiment of a fast approaching and terrible affliction, amid the strict seclusion in which Rosalba lived, had taken possession of this noble and gifted spirit. It might be that her solitary existence tended to sadden her temperament, and deepen its natural inclination to melancholy. The forewarning, of which even in youth she felt conscious, was mournfully fulfilled ere she had long passed her prime. Before she was fifty years of age she became totally blind, as she had feared. Her mind struggled long with weakness and incurable sorrow, but sank at last, and the light of reason too departed.
The latter part of her life was a blank, yet she lingered to old age, dying in Venice, on the 15th of April, 1757. Amid the universal expression of unaffected sorrow and commiseration, she was buried in the church of San Sista a Modesta. She left considerable property. Her grave is still pointed out to the traveler as the last resting-place of one whose genius was an ornament to Venice.
Many of her works have been engraved. The Dresden Gallery has the largest collection, numbering one hundred and fifty-seven pieces.
The engraving of Rosalba’s portrait shows a youthful face, with a pleased expression of childish innocence. The hair is brushed back from the forehead on the top, but curls cluster around the face on the sides; earrings are worn, and the corsage is low. The eyes are dark, the forehead is high, and the whole head has a graceful air.
Like Rosalba Carriera, Ippolita Venier was a native of Venice, though she lived at Udina with the painter her father. In 1765 she painted the Adoration of the Kings, for a church in the sea-born city. Felicità Sartori was a pupil of Rosalba, and worked in Dresden, whither she went with her husband.
Apollonia de Forgue, born in 1767, assisted her husband, Seydelman, with his pictures. She was a member of the Academy in Dresden.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
More vigorous Growth of the Branches selected for female Enterprise.—Progress accelerated toward the Close of last Century.—Still more remarkable within the last fifty Years.—Great Number of Women active in Art.—Better intellectual Cultivation and growing Taste.—Increased Freedom of Woman.—Present Prospect fair.—Growing Sense of the Importance of Female Education.—Women earning an Independence.—The Stream shallows as it widens.—Few Instances of pre-eminent Ability.—Fuller Scope of the Influence of the French Masters in the nineteenth Century.—David, the Republican Painter.—His female Pupils.—Angélique Mongez.—Madame Davin and others.—Disciples of Greuze.—Female Scholars of Regnault.—Pupils of the Disciples of David.—Pupils of Fleury and Cogniet.—Madame Chaudet.—Kinds of Painting in Vogue.—The Princess Marie d’Orleans.—Her Statue of the Maid of Orleans.—Her last Work.—Promise of Greatness.—Sculpture by Madame de Lamartine.—“Paris is France.”—Painting on Porcelain.—Madame Jacotot and others.—Condition of Art in Germany.—Carstens.—Women Artists.—Maria Ellenrieder.—Louise Seidler.—Baroness von Freiberg.—Madame von Schroeter.—Female Artists of the Düsseldorf School.—The greatest Number in Berlin.—Rich Bloom of Female Talent in Vienna and Dresden.—Changes in Italy.—Prospect not fair in Spain and Scandinavia.—In England, Sculpture and Painting successfully cultivated.—Fanny Corbeaux.—Superior in Biblical Scholarship.—The Netherlands in this Century.—Encouragement for Women to persevere.—Dr. Guhl’s Opinion.—History the Teacher of the Present.
With the foregoing glimpses, the sketch of woman’s active efforts in art during the eighteenth century may be closed; completing our bird’s-eye view of her share in those ennobling pursuits during a history covering over two thousand years. As we approach the present time, the various branches in which her enterprise has been influential develop into more distinct and vigorous growth. It may now be interesting to notice the indications of our own—the nineteenth century.
The progress of female talent and skill, accelerated toward the close of the preceding age, has become more remarkable than ever within the last fifty years. The number of women engaged in the pursuits of art during that time far exceeds that of the whole preceding century.
This accession is probably owing, in a great measure, to the more general appreciation of art, growing out of better intellectual cultivation, and to the growing taste for paintings and statuary as ornaments of the abodes of the wealthy. But it is due, in some degree, to the increased freedom of woman—to her liberation from the thraldom of old-fashioned prejudices and unworthy restraints which, in former times, fettered her energies, rendered her acquisition of scientific and artistic knowledge extremely difficult, and threw obstacles in the way of her devotion to study and the exercise of her talents. We have seen that, the more enlarged is the sphere of her activity among any people, the greater is the number of female artists who have done and are doing well, by their sustained and productive cultivation of art.
At the present time, the prospect is fair of a reward for study and unfaltering application in woman as in man; her freedom—without regarding as such the so-called “emancipation,” which would urge her into a course against nature, and contrary to the gentleness and modesty of her sex—is greater, and the sphere of her activity is wider and more effective than it has ever been. The general and growing apprehension of the importance of female education will gradually lead to dissatisfaction with the superficial culture of modern schools, and to the adoption of some plan that shall develop the powers of those who are taught, and strengthen their energies for the active duties of life. Many advantages besides these have encouraged the advancement of women as artists beyond any point reached in preceding ages. We may thus find an increasing number of young women who, bent on making themselves independent by their own efforts, spare no pains to qualify themselves as teachers in various branches of art.
The same observation we made in regard to the increase of art scholars in the last century is true of the present. The stream which has widened has grown shallower in proportion; and while the cultivation of taste and talent has become more general, and many more have attained a respectable degree of skill, there are few instances of pre-eminent ability, or of original genius. This seems a law of the world of art, as well as that of poetry and science; and it holds good no less among men than women. We must look, therefore, for not many remarkable examples of talent.
We have already seen something of the influence of Carstens and David in the bent and direction given to female talent; but these had not full scope till the beginning of the nineteenth century. David was inspired by a more earnest feeling than had breathed in the frivolous and conventional style of a former period; and the depth and vigor, and more careful execution he brought into vogue, greatly improved the taste of his day. He may be called the Republican painter, laying the ground-work of French art as it now exists.
David himself had a goodly number of female pupils, and some of them displayed no inconsiderable talent. Among them may be enumerated Constance Marie Charpentier, who, besides, enjoyed the advantage of instruction under Gérard and Lafitte, with Angélique Mongez, at first the pupil of David, then of Regnault. She painted a large picture entirely in the classic style of David. Her painting—the figures life size—represented “Ulysses finding young Astyanax at Hector’s Grave.” The design is correct of the antique costume, the disposition is excellent, and a free and light touch is noticed. So large a picture had rarely been exhibited in Paris by a woman. This artist, however, lacked originality and self-reliance, and seemed to follow David too slavishly. Another large picture was “Alexander weeping at the Death of the Wife of Darius.” The connoisseurs gave her the credit of a grand style, but thought her coloring hard.
To these may be added Madame Leroulx and Madame Davin. The latter received instruction, also, from Suvé and Augustin, and obtained the gold medal for her miniatures and genre-paintings. Nanine Ballain was noted for her genre-paintings; and Marie Anne Julie Forestier, for her romantic ones in this style and for her classic pictures.
Contemporary with these were some female artists who painted in the manner of Greuze; as Constance Mayer, afterward a disciple and friend of Prudhon; Madame Elie, and Philiberte Ledoux; the first well known for her portraits, the latter for her scenes and child-pictures. We may mention, in passing, Madame Villers, whose numerous works were marked by truth and pleasing expression. One of her pieces, “A Child asleep in a Cradle,” carried away by a flood, while a faithful dog plunges in to save it, with eager expression, is very striking and graceful.
Regnault, the rival of David, had the honor of many more female scholars. One of them, Madame Anzon, painted large pictures in 1793. Sophie Guillemard sent to the Exhibition, in 1802, “Alcibiades and Glycerion,” and, two years later, her “Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife.” After this, Claire Robineau produced historical pictures and landscapes, and Rosalie de Lafontaine her delicate genre-paintings. Aurore Etienne de Lafond and Eugénie Brun obtained medals for their master-pieces in miniature-painting. Madame Lenoir painted Sage’s portrait, and was much esteemed. A host of names might be added, were a mere list desirable.
The disciples and imitators of David also numbered women among their pupils. Drolling’s daughter, Louise Adéone, studied under his direction; her first husband was Pagnierre the architect. Fanny Robert was trained in Girodet’s atelier; Abel de Pujol taught Adrienne Marie Louise Grandpierre Deverzy; and Gérard finished some of David’s scholars, as Eléonore Godefroy, who exhibited portraits and copies from her master after 1810, and Louise de Montferrier, Comtesse de Hugo, whose genre-paintings were brought to the Exhibition nine years later. Madame von Butlar, of Dresden, studied under this master in 1823.
These were the latest masters in serious historical painting till Robert Fleury and Léon Cogniet, who could perhaps boast the greatest number of gifted female pupils. We should mention here Jeanne Elizabeth Gabiou, the wife of Antoine Denis Chaudet, born in 1767, and dying about 1830. She was a pupil of her husband, and painted “A Child Teaching a Dog to Read,” with many charming little pieces of the kind; excelling, too, as a portrait-painter. The empress bought one of her pictures.
The majority of French women artists of this period busied themselves with portraits. Flower-painting was also much in vogue, and miniature and porcelain painting furnished continual employment for female industry and talent.
In modeling and sculpture France has produced some excellent artists since the commencement of the present century.