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.