Marie, Duchess of Würtemberg. Daughter of Louis Philippe, and wife of Duke Frederick William Alexander of Würtemberg. Born at Palermo, 1813, and died at Pisa, 1839. She studied drawing with Ary Scheffer. Her statue of "Jeanne d'Arc" is at Versailles; in the Ferdinand Chapel, in the Bois de Boulogne, is the "Peri as a Praying Angel"; in the Saturnin Chapel at Fontainebleau is a stained-glass window with her design of "St. Amalia." Among her other works are "The Dying Bayard," a relief representing the legend of the Wandering Jew, and a bust of the Belgian Queen. Many of her drawings are in possession of her family. She also executed some lithographs, such as "Souvenirs of 1812," 1831, etc.
Marie Louise, Empress of France. 1791-1846. She studied under Prud'hon. Her "Girl with a Dove" is in the Museum of Besançon.
Marlef, Claude. Bronze medal at Paris Exposition, 1900. Associate of the French National Society of Fine Arts (Beaux-Arts). Born at Nantes. Pupil of A. Roll, Benjamin Constant, Puvis de Chavannes, and Dagnaux.
Mme. Marlef is a portrait painter. Her picture, "Manette Salomon," is in the Hotel de Ville, Paris; the "Nymphe Accroupie" is in the Municipal Museum of Nantes. Among her portraits of well-known women are those of Jane Hading, Elsie de Wolfe, Bessie Abbott of the Opera, Rachel Boyer of the Theatre Français, Marguerite Durand, Editeur de la Fronde, Mlle. Richepin, and many others.
Mme. Marlef has the power of keen observation, so necessary to a painter of portraits. Although there is a certain element of soft tenderness in her pictures, the bold virility of her drawing misled the critics, who for a time believed that her name was used to conceal the personality of a man. A critic in the Paris World writes of this artist: "She has exquisite color sense and delights in presenting that exaltation de la vie, that love, radiance, and joy of life, which are at once the secret of the success and the keynote of the masterful canvases of Roll, in whose studio were first developed Claude Marlef's delicate qualities of truthful perception in the portraiture of woman.... Her perceptions being rapid, she has a remarkable instantaneous insight, enabling her to fix the dominant feature and soul of expression in each of the various types among her numerous sitters."
Mme. Marlef's family name is Lefebure. Her husband died in 1891, the year after their marriage, and she then devoted herself to the serious study of painting, which she had practised from childhood. She first exhibited at the Salon, 1895, and has exhibited annually since then. In 1902 she sent her own portrait, and in 1903 that of Bessie Abbott, to the Exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Martin de Campo, Victoria. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Cadiz, her native city. In the different expositions of this and other Andalusian capitals she has exhibited since 1840 many works, including portraits, genre, historical pictures, and copies. Among them may be mentioned "Susanna in the Bath," "David Playing the Harp before Saul," a "Magdalen," a "Cupid," a "Boy with a Linnet," and a "Nativity." Some of these were awarded prizes. In the Chapel of Relics in the new Cathedral at Cadiz are her "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" and a "Mater Dolorosa."
Martineau, Edith. Associate of Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colors; member of the Hampstead Art Society. Born in Liverpool, where she made her first studies in the School of Art, and later became a pupil of the Royal Academy Schools, London.
Her pictures are not large and are principally figures or figures in landscape, and all in water-colors. She writes very modestly that so many are sold and in private hands that she will give no list of subjects.