The advance of old age could not obscure her rare gifts; the pictures she executed at eighty were as highly finished as at thirty. To genius of the highest order she united all the virtues that dignify and adorn the female character. Respected by the great—beloved even by her rivals—praised by all who knew her—her path in life was strewn with flowers, till at its peaceful close she laid her honors down. She died in 1750, at the age of eighty-six, having been married fifty years and five years a widow.
Her works are rarely seen, from the difficulty of inducing possessors in Holland to part with them. At Amsterdam there are four beautiful pieces. Their chief merits are surprising vigor and a delicate finish, with coloring true to nature. Flowers, fruits, and insects seem full of fresh life.
Rachel’s style combined a softness, lightness, and delicacy of touch with a certain grandeur of disposition and powerful effect, which caused the universal recognition of a manly spirit and nobility of feeling in her works. In her portrait her hair is short, with low-necked dress and beads round the throat. The features of the artist, large and strongly marked, bear the same brave, open character that spoke in the grouping and arrangement of her flowers—in the freedom that marked her compositions and was blended with their surprising lightness and grace. In the depth of coloring a delicate poetic fragrance seemed to be infused.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Unfavorable Circumstances for Painting in Germany.—Effects of the Thirty Years’ War.—The national Love of Art shown by the Signs of Life manifested.—Influence of the Reformation.—Inferiority of German Art in this Century.—Ladies of Rank in Literature.—A female Astronomer.—The Fame of Schurmann awakens Emulation.—Distinguished Women.—Commencement of poetic Orders.—Zesen, the Patron of the Sex.—Women who cultivated Art.—Paintresses of Nuremberg.—Barbara Helena Lange.—Flower-painters and Engravers.—Modeling in Wax.—Women Artists in Augsburg.—In Munich.—In Hamburg.—The Princess Hollandina.—Her Paintings.—Maria Sibylla Merian.—Early Fondness for Insects.—Maternal Opposition.—Her Marriage.—Publication of her first Work.—Joins the Labadists.—Returns to the Butterflies.—Curiosity to see American Insects.—Voyage to Surinam.—Story of the Lantern-flies.—Return to Holland.—Her Works published.—Republication in Paris afterward.—Her Daughters.—Her personal Appearance.—The Danish Women Artists.—Anna Crabbe.—King’s Daughters.—The Taste in Art in Denmark and England governed by that of foreign Nations.—Female Artists in England.—The Poetesses most prominent.—Miniaturists.—Portrait-painters.—Etchers.—Lady Connoisseurs.—The Dwarf’s Daughter.—Anna Carlisle.—Mary Beale.—Pupil of Sir Peter Lely.—Character of her Works.—Rumor of Lely’s Attachment to her.—Poems in her Praise.—Mr. Beale’s Note-books.—Anne Killegrew.—Her Portraits of the Royal Family.—History and still-life Pieces.—Her Portrait by Lely.—Her Character.—Dryden’s Ode to her Memory.—Her Poems published.—Mademoiselle Rosée.—The Artist in Silk.—Wonderful Effects.—Her Works Curiosities.—The Artist of the Scissors.—Her singular imitative Powers.—A Copyist of old Paintings.—Her Cuttings.—Views of all kinds done with the Scissors.—Royal and imperial Visitors.—Her Trophy for the Emperor Leopold.—Poems in her Praise.—The Swiss Paintress Anna Wasser.—Her Education and Works.—Commissions from Courts.—Her Father’s Avarice.—Sojourn at a Court.—Return home.—Fatal Accident.—Her literary Accomplishments.
While in the Netherlands, under the influence of the national elevation, art grew into a school of peculiar nationality, much less favorable circumstances existed in Germany. It may be said, indeed, that none less favorable could be found in any country. It was not merely that the land had been wasted by the Thirty Years’ War, for art and knowledge have been known to bud and bloom amid a severe national struggle. This contest, however, was one hostile to every generous impulse and lofty aspiration, and tended to crush the noble energies that are called forth in other conflicts. It was an internecine and sordid strife; Germans were arrayed against Germans, and hordes of foreign robbers were encouraged to plunder the country desolated by her own children. In the reign of mean and base passions, there was no soil where such flowers might bloom as then made beautiful the Netherlands.
There was wanting, also, such a central point as was afforded in France and Spain by the courts of Versailles and Madrid. All things revolved in a narrow and sordid sphere of individual interest. That Germany, in spite of this disastrous and gloomy condition, should have produced artists, and that even women, with self-sacrificing zeal should have manifested their predilection for the calling, is a proof of the deep love for art implanted in the heart of the nation, showing itself in brilliant flashes during the sixteenth century, and in the midst of troubles not entirely extinguished. The Reformation, while it had inspired Germany with the spirit of a new epoch, at first assumed a position hostile to the arts that had contributed to embellish the old faith. For three hundred years, by open force, blind fury, and cold contempt, this misapprehension of the true scope of art threatened to destroy what preceding ages had left of excellence; nor did the struggle terminate till the nineteenth century.
Signs of life in art had been first perceived in Germany toward the beginning of the thirteenth century; and there had been progressive stages of improvement. The stiffness and seriousness prescribed by tradition were replaced by softer execution and an easier flow of outline. Flowing drapery and grace marked the earliest attempts to express the artist’s own feelings in his works, and a subjective principle was allowed in paintings.
In the revival of art toward the end of the fifteenth century the sacred subjects of earlier ages had been much chosen. Afterward, the artist’s own mind and emotions came forth in self-productive energy; and, at a later period, rose into favor the accurate delineations of nature’s forms.
The inferiority of Germany in an artistic view, in the seventeenth century, is undeniable; but many were found who longed after the excellence of which other lands could boast. Women there were in abundance who cultivated ornamental literature; noble ladies and princesses patronized poets and courted the muses. Henrietta of Orange, the consort of the great Elector, was one of several royal dames yet remembered in their sacred songs. The lower orders could boast their cultivated women; and the name of Maria Cunitz deserves mention as learned in the science of astronomy.