Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

ANNA MARIA SCHURMANN.

A higher and more enduring fame than all these could command must be accorded to Anna Maria Schurmann, called by the Dutch poets their Sappho and their Corneille. She was born in November, 1607, in Cologne (Descampes says, at Utrecht), of Flemish parents. Her family, like that of Rubens, was Protestant, and her parents fled to Cologne from the persecutions of Alba, remaining till 1615, when they removed to Utrecht.

Even in early childhood the genius of the young girl displayed its bent. At three years of age she began to read, and at seven could speak Latin. Her mother tried to keep her at the needle, but she loved to amuse herself by cutting out paper pictures; she also painted flowers and birds—untaught. A few years later, her taste for poetry and learning languages developed itself. Learning was her passion; the arts her recreation. Being allowed to be present at her brothers’ Latin lessons, she soon gained surprising proficiency in that tongue. When she was ten years old, she translated passages from Seneca into French and Flemish. Her love of study soon led to the acquisition of the Greek. To the classics she added, before long, a knowledge of the Oriental languages. She spoke and wrote the Hebrew, Samaritan, Arabic, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Turkish, and Persian; besides being perfectly well acquainted with the Italian, Spanish, French, English, and German, and speaking every European tongue with elegance.

At the age of eleven this Flemish lassie had read the Bible, Seneca, Virgil, Homer, and Æschylus in the original tongues; at fourteen she composed a Latin ode to the famous Dutch poet Jacob Cats, who became afterward an unsuccessful suitor for her hand. She wrote verses, indeed, in many languages. The knowledge of different tongues greatly aided her theological studies, in which she took the deepest interest from early life. It is said that it was by reading the History of the Martyrs she became imbued with the tendency to religious enthusiasm that so strongly influenced her through life, and led to so strange a career in her latter years.

The astonishing learning of this remarkable woman and her mastery in the languages, caused her opinions to be often consulted by the most erudite scholars of her time. Her judgment was always received with respect; an honorable place was reserved for her in the lecture-rooms of the University at Utrecht; and not unfrequently she took part openly in the learned discussions there carried on. The professors of the University of Leyden had a tribune made, where she could hear without mixing with the audience. With this wonderful erudition Anna Maria combined a rare degree of cultivation in art. The genius that had shown itself in paper-cutting still gave evidence of strong and resolute activity. She was skilled both in drawing and painting, had a “happy taste in sculpture,” and exercised her talents in carving in wood and ivory, as well as in modeling in wax. She carved the busts of her mother and brothers in wood. The painter Honthorst valued a single portrait executed by her, at a thousand Dutch florins. In addition, she has left evidence of her no slight accomplishments in copper-engraving; and she engraved with the diamond on crystal. Taste in music, and skill in playing on several instruments, fill up the list of the amazing variety of endowments bestowed on one of the most gifted of her sex.

We can not marvel that she was called by her contemporaries “the wonder of creation.” Not only was she, on account of such varied gifts, regarded with admiration, but she was idolized by her acquaintance for personal qualities. She was in the most intimate literary association with men of distinguished learning like Salmatius, Heinsius, Vossius—who is said to have taught her Hebrew—and others. Princes and princesses came to visit and converse with her, and entered into correspondence with her.

Gonzagues, Queen of Poland, taking a journey to Utrecht in 1645, went to visit Anna Maria, having heard such wonderful things of her. After a long conversation she gave her flattering tokens of her esteem.

The Queen of Bohemia, and the Princess Louise, her daughter, often wrote to her. With a modesty that was as rare as her singular endowments, Anna Maria declined all proffered honors, and it was long before she could be persuaded to publish her literary productions. When the distinguished physician, Johann van Beverwyk wished to dedicate to her his treatise on the “Advantages of the Female Sex,” she sought to withdraw from the intended compliment. In 1636 she was induced to publish a Latin poem, celebrating the foundation of the University of Utrecht. Her “Apology for the Female Sex,” and other works followed this.

Anna Maria Schurmann resided many years in her native city of Cologne. According to one authority, part of her time was passed in a country house, where she lived in the utmost simplicity, shunning the attentions of the persons of celebrity who wished to visit her, and dividing her time between her art and her pen. In 1664 she made a journey to Germany in company with her brother; and there first became acquainted with Labadie, the celebrated French enthusiast and preacher of new doctrines. He believed that the Supreme Being would deceive man for the purpose of doing good. He taught that new revelations were continually made by the Holy Spirit to the human soul; that the Bible was not a necessary guide; that observance of the Sabbath was not imperative; that a contemplative life tended to perfection in the character; and that such a state could be attained by self-denial, self-mortification, and prayer. This man was possessed of singular intellectual powers, and fascinating eloquence. He succeeded in gaining many followers, and the mind of Anna Maria, deep and serious to melancholy, and now clouded by grief for the loss of her father and brothers, too readily gave credence to his pretensions.

Abandoning both pen and pencil, she joined the disciples of Labadie, devoting herself to the studies that favored his theological doctrines. To promote his success, she published her last work, entitled “Eucleria,” in 1673, the year before the death of the fanatic. She attended him, and it is said he died in her arms.