Antigna, Mme. Hélène Marie.Born at Melun. Pupilof her husband, Jean Pierre Antigna, and of Delacroix. Her best works are small genre subjects, which are excellent and much admired by other artists.
In 1877 she exhibited at the Paris Salon "On n'entre pas!" and the "New Cider"; in 1876, an "Interior at Saint Brieuc" and "A Stable"; in 1875, "Tant va la cruche à l'eau," etc.
Appia, Mme. Thérèse.Member of the Society of the Permanente Exposition of the Athénée, Geneva. Born at Lausanne. Pupil of Mercié and Rodin at Paris.
Mme. Appia, before her marriage, exhibited at the Paris Salon several years continuously. Since then she has exhibited at Turin and Geneva.
She has executed many portrait busts; among them are those of M. Guillaume Monod, Paris, Commander Paul Meiller, and a medallion portrait of Père Hyacinthe, etc.
Argyll, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Louise, Duchess of.This artist has exhibited her work since, 1868. Although her sketches in water-color are clever and attractive, it is as a sculptor that her best work has been done. Pupil of Sir J. E. Boehne, R.A., her unusual natural talent was carefully developed under his advice, and her unflagging industry and devotion to her work have enabled her to rival sculptors who live by their art.
Her busts and lesser subjects are refined and delicate, while possessing a certain individuality which this lady is known to exercise in her direction of the assistant she is forced to employ. Her chief attainment, the large seated figure of Queen Victoria in Kensington Gardens, is a work of which she may well be proud.
Of this statue Mr. M. H. Spielmann writes: "The setting up of the figure, the arrangement of the drapery, the modelling, the design of the pedestal—all the parts, in fact—are such that the statue must be added to the short list of those which are genuine embellishments to the city of London."
The Duchess of Argyll has been commissioned to design a statue of heroic size, to be executed in bronze and placed in Westminster Abbey, to commemorate the colonial troops who gave up their lives in South Africa in the Boer war.
Arnold, Annie R. Merrylees.Born at Birkenhead. A Scotch miniature painter. Studied in Edinburgh, first in the School of Art, under Mr. Hodder, and later in the life class of Robert Macgregor; afterward in Paris under Benjamin-Constant.
Mrs. Arnold writes me that she thinks it important for miniature painters to do work in a more realistic medium occasionally, and something of a bolder character than can be done in their specialty. She never studied miniature painting, but took it up at the request of a patroness who, before the present fashion for this art had come about, complained that she could find no one who painted miniatures. This lady gave the artist a number of theGirls' Own Journal,containing directions for miniature painting, after which Mrs. Arnold began to work in this specialty. She has painted a miniature of Lady Evelyn Cavendish, owned by the Marquis of Lansdowne; others of the Earl and Countess of Mar and Kellie, the first of which belongs to the Royal Scottish Academy; one ofLady Helen Vincent, one of the daughter of Lionel Phillips, Esquire, and several for prominent families in Baltimore and Washington. Her work is seen in the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, London.
In 1903 she exhibited miniatures of Miss M. L. Fenton, the late Mrs. Cameron Corbett, and the Hon. Thomas Erskine, younger son of the Earl of Mar and Kellie.
Ashe, Margaret L.
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Assche, Amélie van.Portrait painter and court painter to Queen Louise Marie of Belgium. She was born in 1804, and was the daughter of Henri Jean van Assche. Her first teachers were Mlle. F. Lagarenine and D' Antissier; she later went to Paris, where she spent some time as a pupil of Millet. She made her début at Ghent in 1820, and in Brussels in 1821, with water-colors and pastels, and some of her miniatures figured in the various exhibitions at Brussels between 1830 and 1848, and in Ghent between 1835 and 1838. Her portraits, which are thought to be very good likenesses, are also admirable in color, drawing, and modelling; and her portrait of Leopold I., which she painted in 1839, won for her the appointment at court.
Assche, Isabel Catherine van.She was born at Brussels, 1794. Landscape painter. She took a first prize at Ghent in 1829, and became a pupil of her uncle, Henri van Assche, who was often called the painter of waterfalls. As early as 1812 and 1813 two of her water-colors were displayed in Ghent and Brussels respectively, andshe was represented in the exhibitions at Ghent in 1826, 1829, and 1835; at Brussels in 1827 and 1842; at Antwerp in 1834, 1837, and 1840; and at Lüttich in 1836. Her subjects were all taken from the neighborhood of Brussels, and one of them belongs to the royal collection in the Pavilion at Haarlem. In 1828 she married Charles Léon Kindt.
Athes-Perrelet, Louise.First prize and honorable mention, class Gillet and Hébert, 1888; class Bovy, first prize, 1889; Academy class, special mention, 1890; School of Arts, special mention, hors concours, 1891; also, same year, first prize for sculpture, offered by the Society of Arts; first prize offered by the Secretary of the Theatre, 1902. Member of the Union des Femmes and Cercle Artistique. Born at Neuchâtel. Studies made at Geneva under Mme. Carteret and Mme. Gillet and Professors Hébert and B. Penn, in drawing and painting; M. Bovy, in sculpture; and of various masters in decorative work and engraving. Has executed statues, busts, medallion portraits; has painted costumes, according to an invention of her own, for the Theatre of Geneva, and has also made tapestries in New York. All her works have been commended in the journals of Geneva and New York.
Austen, Winifred.Member of Society of Women Artists, London. Born at Ramsgate. Pupil of Mrs. Jopling-Rowe and Mr. C. E. Swan. Miss Austen exhibits in the Royal Academy exhibitions; her works are well hung—one on the line.
Her favorite subjects are wild animals, and she is successful in the illustration of books. Her pictures are inprivate collections. At the Royal Academy in 1903 she exhibited "The Day of Reckoning," a wolf pursued by hunters through a forest in snow. A second shows a snow scene, with a wolf baying, while two others are apparently listening to him. "While the wolf, in nightly prowl, bays the moon with hideous howl," is the legend with the picture.
Auzon, Pauline.Born in Paris, where she died. 1775-1835. She was a pupil of Regnault and excelled in portraits of women. She exhibited in the Paris Salon from 1793, when but eighteen years old. Her pictures of the "Arrival of Marie Louise in Compiègne" and "Marie Louise Taking Leave of her Family" are in the Versailles Gallery.
Babiano y Mendez Nuñez, Carmen.At the Santiago Exposition, 1875, this artist exhibited two oil paintings and two landscapes in crayon; at Coruña, 1878, a portrait in oil of the Marquis de Mendez Nuñez; at Pontevedra, 1880, several pen and water-color studies, three life-size portraits in crayon, and a work in oil, "A Girl Feeding Chickens."
Baily, Caroline A. B.Gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; third-class medal, Salon, 1901.
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Baker, Elizabeth Gowdy.Medal at Cooper Union. Member of Boston Art Students' Association and Art Workers' Club for Women, New York. Born at Xenia, Ohio. Pupil of the Cooper Union, Art Students' League, New York School of Art, Philadelphia Academy of FineArts, Cowles Art School, Boston; under Frederick Freer, William Chase, and Siddons Mowbray.
This artist has painted numerous portraits and has been especially successful with pictures of children. She has a method of her own of which she has recently written me.
A PORTRAIT. Elizabeth Gowdy Baker
A PORTRAIT
Elizabeth Gowdy Baker
She claims that it is excellent for life-size portraits in water-colors. The paper she uses is heavier than any made in this country, and must be imported; the water-colors are very strong. Mrs. Baker claims that in this method she gets "the strength of oils with the daintiness of water-colors, and that it isbeautifulfor women and children, and sufficiently strong for portraits of men."
She rarely exhibits, and her portraits are in private houses.
Bakhuyzen, Juffrouw Gerardina Jacoba van de Sande.Silver medal at The Hague, 1857; honorary medal at Amsterdam, 1861; another at The Hague, 1863; and a medal of distinction at Amsterdam Colonial Exhibition, 1885. Daughter of the well-known animal painter. From childhood she painted flowers, and for a time this made no especial impression on her family or friends, as it was not an uncommon occupation for girls. At length her father saw that this daughter, Gerardina—for he had numerous daughters, and they all desired to be artists—had talent, and when, in 1850, the Minerva Academy at Groningen gave out "Roses and Dahlias" as a subject, and offered a prize of a little more than ten dollars for the best example, he encouraged Gerardina to enter the contest. She received the contemptible reward, and found,to her astonishment, that the Minerva Academy considered the picture as belonging to them.
However, this affair brought the name of the artist to the knowledge of the public, and she determined to devote herself to the painting of flowers and fruit, in which she has won unusual fame. There is no sameness in her pictures, and her subjects do not appear to be "arranged"—everything seems to have fallen into its place by chance and to be entirely natural.
Gerardina Jacoba and her brother Julius van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the landscape painter, share one studio. She paints with rapidity, as one must in order to picture the freshness of fast-fading flowers.
Johan Gram writes of her: "If she paints a basket of peaches or plums, they look as if just picked by the gardener and placed upon the table, without any thought of studied effect; some leaves covering the fruit, others falling out of the basket in the most natural way. If she paints the branch of a rose-tree, it seems to spring from the ground with its flowers in all their luxurious wantonness, and one can almost imagine one's self inhaling their delightful perfume. This talented artist knows so well how to depict with her brush the transparency and softness of the tender, ethereal rose, that one may seek in vain among a crowd of artists for her equal.... The paintings are all bright and sunny, and we are filled with enthusiasm when gazing at her powerful works."
This artist was born in 1826 and died in 1895. She lived and died in her family residence. In 1850, at Groningen, she took for her motto, "Be true to nature and youwill produce that which is good." To this she remained faithful all her days.
Baldwin, Edith Ella.Born at Worcester, Massachusetts. Studied in Paris at Julian Academy, under Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury; at the Colarossi studios under Courtois, also under Julius Rolshoven and Mosler.
Paints portraits and miniatures. At the Salon of the Champ de Mars she exhibited a portrait in pastel, in 1901; at exhibitions of the Society of American Artists in 1898 and 1899 she exhibited miniatures; also pictures in oils at Worcester, 1903.
Ball, Caroline Peddle.Honorable mention at Paris Exhibition, 1900. Member of the Guild of Arts and Crafts and of Art Students' League. Born at Terre Haute, Indiana. Pupil at the Art Students' League, under Augustus St. Gaudens and Kenyon Cox.
This sculptor exhibited at Paris a Bronze Clock. She designed for the Tiffany Glass Company the figure of the Young Virgin and that of the Christ of the Sacred Heart.
A memorial fountain at Flushing, Long Island, a medallion portrait of Miss Cox of Terre Haute, a monument to a child in the same city, a Victory in a quadriga, seen on the United States Building, Paris, 1900, and also at the Buffalo Exhibition, 1901, are among her important works.
Bañuelos, Antonia.At the Paris Exposition of 1878 several portraits by this artist attracted attention, one of them being a portrait of herself. At the Exposition of 1880 she exhibited "A Guitar Player."
Barrantes Manuel de Aragon, Maria del Cármen.Member of the Academy of San Fernando, Madrid, 1816. This institution possesses a drawing by her of the "Virgin with the Christ-Child" and a portrait in oil of a person of the epoch of Charles III.
Bashkirtseff, Marie.Born in Russia of a noble family. 1860-84. This remarkable young woman is interesting in various phases of her life, but here it is as an artist that she is to be considered. Her journal, she tells us, is absolutely truthful, and it is but courteous to take the story of her artistic career from that. She had lessons in drawing, as many children do, but she gives no indication of a special love for art until she visits Florence when fourteen years old, and her love of pictures and statues is awakened. She spent hours in galleries, never sitting down, without fatigue, in spite of her delicacy. She says: "That is because the things one loves do not tire one. So long as there are pictures and, better still, statues to be seen, I am made of iron." After questioning whether she dare say it, she confides to her readers: "I don't like the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael. The countenance of the Virgin is pale, the color is not natural, the expression is that of a waiting-maid rather than of a Madonna. Ah, but there is a Magdalen of Titian that enchanted me. Only—there must always be an only—her wrists are too thick and her hands are too plump—beautiful hands they would be on a woman of fifty. There are things of Rubens and Vandyck that are ravishing. The 'Mensonge' of Salvator Rosa is very natural. I do not speak as a connoisseur; what most resembles nature pleases me most. Is it not the aim of painting to copy nature? Ilike very much the full, fresh countenance of the wife of Paul Veronese, painted by him. I like the style of his faces. I adore Titian and Vandyck; but that poor Raphael! Provided only no one knows what I write; people would take me for a fool; I do not criticise Raphael; I do not understand him; in time I shall no doubt learn to appreciate his beauties. The portrait of Pope Leo X.—I think it is—is admirable, however." A surprising critique for a girl of her age!
When seventeen she made her first picture of any importance. "While they were playing cards last night I made a rough sketch of the players—and this morning I transferred the sketch to canvas. I am delighted to have made a picture of persons sitting down in different attitudes; I copied the position of the hands and arms, the expressions of the countenance, etc. I had never before done anything but heads, which I was satisfied to scatter over the canvas like flowers."
Her enthusiasm for her art constantly increased. She was not willing to acknowledge her semi-invalidism and was filled with the desire to do something in art that would live after her. She was opposed by her family, who wished her to be in fashionable society. At length she had her way, and when not quite eighteen began to study regularly at the Julian Academy. She worked eight and nine hours a day. Julian encouraged her, she rejoiced in being with "real artists who have exhibited in the Salon and whose pictures are bought," and declared herself "happy, happy!" Before long M. Julian told her that she might become a great artist, and the first time that Robert-Fleury saw her work and learned how little she had studied, and that she had never before drawn from a living model, he said: "Well, then, you have extraordinary talent for painting; you are specially gifted, and I advise you to work hard."
Her masters always assured her of her talent, but she was much of the time depressed. She admired the work of Mlle. Breslau and acknowledged herself jealous of the Swiss artist. But after a year of study she took the second prize in the Academy, and admitted that she ought to be content.
Robert-Fleury took much interest in her work, and she began to hope to equal Breslau; but she was as often despondent as she was happy, which no doubt was due to her health, for she was already stricken with the malady from which she died. Julian wondered why, with her talent, it was so difficult for her to paint; to herself she seemed paralyzed.
In the autumn of 1879 she took a studio, and, besides her painting, she essayed modelling. In 1880 her portrait of her sister was exhibited at the Salon, and her mother and other friends were gratified by its acceptance.
At one time Mlle. Bashkirtseff had suffered with her eyes, and, getting better of that, she had an attack of deafness. For these reasons she went, in the summer of 1880, to Mont-Dore for treatment, and was much benefited in regard to her deafness, though not cured, and now the condition of her lungs was recognized, and what she had realized for some time was told to her family. She suffered greatly from the restrictions of her condition.She could not read very much, as her eyes were not strong enough to read and paint; she avoided people because of her deafness; her cough was very tiresome and her breathing difficult.
At the Salon of 1881 her picture was well hung and was praised by artists. In the autumn of that year she was very ill, but happily, about the beginning of 1882, she was much better and again enthusiastic about her painting. She had been in Spain and excited admiration in Madrid by the excellence of her copy of "Vulcan," by Velasquez. January 15th she wrote: "I am wrapped up in my art. I think I caught the sacred fire in Spain at the same time that I caught the pleurisy. From being a student I now begin to be an artist. This sudden influx of power puts me beside myself with joy. I sketch future pictures; I dream of painting an Ophelia. Potain has promised to take me to Saint-Anne to study faces of the mad women there, and then I am full of the idea of painting an old man, an Arab, sitting down singing to the accompaniment of a kind of guitar; and I am thinking also of a large affair for the coming Salon—a view of the Carnival; but for this it would be necessary that I should go to Nice—to Naples first for the Carnival, and then to Nice, where I have my villa, to paint it in open air."
She now met Bastien-Lepage, who, while he was somewhat severe in his criticism of her work, told her seriously that she was "marvellously gifted." This gave her great pleasure, and, indeed, just at this time the whole tone of the journal and her art enthusiasm are most comforting after the preceding despairing months. From this timeuntil her death her journal is largely occupied with her health, which constantly failed, but her interest in art and her intense desire to do something worthy of a great artist—something that Julian, Robert-Fleury, and, above all, Bastien-Lepage, could praise, seemed to give her strength, and, in spite of the steady advance of the fell tuberculosis from which she was dying, she worked devotedly.
She had a fine studio in a new home of the family, and was seized with an ardent desire to try sculpture—she did a little in this art—but that which proved to be her last and best work was her contribution to the Salon of 1884. This brought her to the notice of the public, and she had great pleasure, although mingled with the conviction of her coming death and the doubts of her ability to do more. Of this time she writes: "Am I satisfied? It is easy to answer that question; I am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. My success is just enough to keep me from being unhappy. That is all."
Again: "I have just returned from the Salon. We remained a long time seated on a bench before the picture. It attracted a good deal of attention, and I smiled to myself at the thought that no one would ever imagine the elegantly dressed young girl seated before it, showing the tips of her little boots, to be the artist. Ah, all this is a great deal better than last year! Have I achieved a success, in the true, serious meaning of the word? I almost think so."
The picture was called the "Meeting," and shows seven gamins talking together before a wooden fence at the corner of a street. François Coppée wrote of it: "It is achef d'oeuvre, I maintain. The faces and the attitudes of the children are strikingly real. The glimpse of meagre landscape expresses the sadness of the poorer neighborhoods."
Previous to this time, her picture of two boys, called "Jean and Jacques," had been reproduced in the RussianIllustration, and she now received many requests for permission to photograph and reproduce her "Meeting," and connoisseurs made requests to be admitted to her studio. All this gratified her while it also surprised. She was at work on a picture called "Spring," for which she went to Sèvres, to paint in the open.
Naturally she hoped for a Salon medal, and her friends encouraged her wish—but alas! she was cruelly disappointed. Many thought her unfairly treated, but it was remembered that the year before she had publicly spoken of the committee as "idiots"!
People now wished to buy her pictures and in many ways she realized that she was successful. How pathetic her written words: "I have spent six years, working ten hours a day, to gain what? The knowledge of all I have yet to learn in my art, and a fatal disease!"
It is probable that the "Meeting" received no medal because it was suspected that Mlle. Bashkirtseff had been aided in her work. No one could tell who had originated this idea, but as some medals had been given to women who did not paint their pictures alone, the committee were timid, although there seems to have been no question as to superiority.
A friendship had grown up between the families Bashkirtseff and Bastien-Lepage. Both the great artist and the dying girl were very ill, but for some time she and her mother visited him every two or three days. He seemed almost to live on these visits and complained if they were omitted. At last, ill as Bastien-Lepage was, he was the better able of the two to make a visit. On October 16th she writes of his being brought to her and made comfortable in one easy-chair while she was in another. "Ah, if I could only paint!" he said. "And I?" she replied. "There is the end to this year's picture!"
These visits were continued. October 20th she writes of his increasing feebleness. She wrote no more, and in eleven days was dead.
In 1885 the works of Marie Bashkirtseff were exhibited. In the catalogue was printed François Coppée's account of a visit he had made her mother a few months before Marie's death. He saw her studio and her works, and wrote, after speaking of the "Meeting," as follows:
"At the Exhibition—Salon—before this charming picture, the public had with a unanimous voice bestowed the medal on Mlle. B., who had been already 'mentioned' the year before. Why was this verdict not confirmed by the jury? Because the artist was a foreigner? Who knows? Perhaps because of her wealth. This injustice made her suffer, and she endeavored—the noble child—to avenge herself by redoubling her efforts.
"In one hour I saw there twenty canvases commenced; a hundred designs—drawings, painted studies, the cast of a statue, portraits which suggested to me the name ofFrans Hals, scenes made from life in the open streets; notably one large sketch of a landscape—the October mist on the shore, the trees half stripped, big yellow leaves strewing the ground. In a word, works in which is incessantly sought, or more often asserts itself, the sentiment of the sincerest and most original art, and of the most personal talent."
Mathilde Blind, in her "Study of Marie Bashkirtseff," says: "Marie loved to recall Balzac's questionable definition that the genius of observation is almost the whole of human genius. It was natural it should please her, since it was the most conspicuous of her many gifts. As we might expect, therefore, she was especially successful as a portrait painter, for she had a knack of catching her sitter's likeness with the bloom of nature yet fresh upon it. All her likenesses are singularly individual, and we realize their character at a glance. Look, for example, at her portrait of a Parisian swell, in irreproachable evening dress and white kid gloves, sucking his silver-headed cane, with a simper that shows all his white teeth; and then at the head and bust of a Spanish convict, painted from life at the prison in Granada. Compare that embodiment of fashionable vacuity with this face, whose brute-like eyes haunt you with their sadly stunted look. What observation is shown in the painting of those heavily bulging lips, which express weakness rather than wickedness of disposition—in those coarse hands engaged in the feminine occupation of knitting a blue and white stocking!"
Bauck, Jeanna.Born in Stockholm in 1840. Portraitand landscape painter. In 1863 she went to Dresden, and studied figure work with Professor Ehrhardt; later she moved to Düsseldorf, where she devoted herself to landscape under Flamm, and in 1866 she settled in Munich, where she has since remained, making long visits to Paris, Venice, and parts of Switzerland. Her later work is marked by the romantic influence of C. Ludwig, who was for a time her instructor, but she shows unusual breadth and sureness in dealing with difficult subjects, such as dusky forests with dark waters or bare ruins bordered with stiff, ghost-like trees. Though not without talent and boldness, she lacks a feeling for style.
Bauerlé, Miss A.
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Baxter, Martha Wheeler.
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Beale, Mary.1632-97. This artist was the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Cradock. She married Mr. Beale, an artist and a color-maker. She studied under Sir Peter Lely, who obtained for her the privilege of copying some of Vandyck's most famous works.
Mrs. Beale's portraits of Charles II., Cowley, and the Duke of Norfolk are in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and that of Archbishop Tillotson is in Lambeth Palace. This portrait was the first example of an ecclesiastic represented as wearing a wig instead of the usual silk coif.
Her drawing was excellent and spirited, her color strongand pure, and her portraits were sought by many distinguished persons.
Several poems were written in praise of this artist, in one of which, by Dr. Woodfall, she is called "Belasia." Her husband, Charles Beale, an inferior artist, was proud of his wife, and spent much time in recording the visits she received, the praises lavished on her, and similar matters concerning her art and life. He left more than thirty pocket-notebooks filled with these records, and showed himself far more content that his wife should be appreciated than any praise of himself could have made him.
Beaury-Saurel, Mme. Amélie.Prize of honor at Exposition of Black and White, 1891; third-class medal, Salon, 1883; bronze medal, Exposition, 1889. Born at Barcelona, of French parents. Pupil of Julian Academy. Among her principal portraits are those of Léon Say, Félix Voisin, Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Mme. Sadi-Carnot, Coralie Cohen, Princess Ghika, etc. She has also painted the "Two Vanquished Ones," "A Woman Physician," and a "Souvenir of a Bull-Fight," pastel, etc.
This artist has also contributed to several magazines. At the Salon of the Artistes Français, 1902, she exhibited a portrait and a picture of "Hamlet"; in 1903 a picture, "In the Train." Mme. Beaury-Saurel is also Mme. Julian, wife of the head of the Academy in which she was educated.
Beaux, Cecilia.Mary Smith prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1885, 1887, 1891, 1892; gold medal, Philadelphia Art Club, 1893; Dodge prize, National Academy of Design, 1893; bronze medal, Carnegie Institute, 1896; first-class gold medal, $1,500, Carnegie Institute, 1899; Temple gold medal, Pennsylvania Academy, 1900; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; gold medal, (?) 1901. Associate of National Academy of Design, member of Society of American Artists, associate of Société des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Born in Philadelphia. Studied under Mrs. T. A. Janvier, Adolf van der Weilen, and William Sartain in Philadelphia; under Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau, and Benjamin-Constant, in Paris.
Her portraits are numerous. In 1894 she exhibited a portrait of a child at the Exhibition of the Society of American Artists, which was much admired and noticed in theCentury Magazine, September, 1894, as follows: "Few artists have the fresh touch which the child needs and the firm and rapid execution which allows the painter to catch the fleeting expression and the half-forms which make child portraits at once the longing and the despair of portrait painters. Miss Beaux's technique is altogether French, sometimes reminding me a little of Carolus Duran and of Sargent; but her individuality has triumphed over all suggestions of her foreign masters, and the combination of refinement and strength is altogether her own."
Seven years later, in theInternational Studio, September, 1901, we read: "The mention of style suggests a reference to the portraits by Miss Cecilia Beaux, while the allusion to characterization suggests at the same time their limitation. The oftener one sees her 'Mother and Daughter,' which gained the gold medal at Pittsburg in 1899 and the gold medal also at last year's Paris Exposition, the less one feels inclined to accept it as a satisfactoryexample of portraiture. Magnificent assurance of method it certainly has, controlled also by a fine sobriety of feeling, so that no part of the ensemble impinges upon the due importance of the other parts; it is a balanced, dignified picture. But in its lack of intimacy it is positively callous. One has met these ladies on many occasions, but with no increase of acquaintanceship or interest on either side—our meetings are sterile of any human interest. So one turns with relief to Miss Beaux's other picture of 'Dorothea and Francesca'—an older girl leading a younger one in the steps of a dance. They are not concerned with us, but at least interested in one another; and we can attach ourselves, if only as outsiders, to the human interest involved.
"These pictures suggest a moment's consideration of the true meaning of the term 'style' as applied to painting. Is it not more than the mere ableness of method, still more than the audacity of brush work, that often passes for style? Is it possible to dissociate the manner of a picture from its embodiment of some fact or idea? For it to have style in the full sense of the word, surely it must embody an expression of life as serious and thorough as the method of record."—Charles H. Caffin.
In theInternational Studioof March, 1903, we read: "The portrait of Mrs. Roosevelt, by Miss Cecilia Beaux, seemed to me to be one of the happiest of her creations. Nothing could exceed the skill and daintiness with which the costume is painted, and the characterization of the head is more sympathetic than usual, offering a most winsome type of beautiful, good womanhood. A little childhas been added to the picture—an afterthought, I understand, and scarcely a fortunate one; at least in the manner of its presentment. The figure is cleverly merged in half shadow, but the treatment of the face is brusque, and a most unpleasant smirk distorts the child's mouth. It is the portrait of the mother that carries the picture, and its superiority to many of Miss Beaux's portraits consists in the sympathy with her subject which the painter has displayed."—Charles H. Caffin.
A writer in theMail and Expresssays: "Miss Beaux has approached the task of painting the society woman of to-day, not as one to whom this type is known only by the exterior, but with a sympathy as complete as a similar tradition and an artistic temperament will allow. Thus she starts with an advantage denied to all but a very few American portrait painters, and this explains the instinctive way in which she gives to her pictured subjects an air of natural ease and good breeding."
Miss Beaux's picture of "Brighton Cats" is so excellent that one almost regrets that she has not emulated Mme. Ronner's example and left portraits of humans to the many artists who cannot paint cats!
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Beck, Carol H.Mary Smith prize at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1899. Fellow of above Academy and member of the Plastic Club, Philadelphia. Born in Philadelphia. Studied in schools of Pennsylvania Academy, and later in Dresden and Paris.
Miss Beck paints portraits and her works have beenfrequently exhibited. Her portraits are also seen in the University of Pennsylvania, in the Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia, in Wesleyan College, at the capitols of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and other public places, as well as in many private homes.
Miss Beck edited the Catalogue of the Wilstach Collection of Paintings in Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
Beckington, Alice.
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Beernaerts, Euphrosine.Landscape painter. In 1873 she won a medal at Vienna, in 1875 a gold medal at the Brussels Salon, and still other medals at Philadelphia (1876), Sydney (1879), and Teplitz (1879). She was made Chévalier de l'Ordre de Léopold in 1881. Mlle. Beernaerts was born at Ostend, 1831, and studied under Kuhner in Brussels. She travelled in Germany, France, and Italy, and exhibited admirable landscapes at Brussels, Antwerp, and Paris, her favorite subjects being Dutch. In 1878 the following pictures by her were shown in Paris: "Lisière de bois dans les Dunes (Zélande)," "Le Village de Domburg (Zélande)," and "Intérieur de bois à Oost-Kapel (Holland)." Other well-known works are "Die Campine" and "Aus der Umgebung von Oosterbeck."
Begas, Luise Parmentier.Born in Vienna. Pupil of Schindler and Unger. She travelled extensively in Europe and the Orient, and spent some time in Sicily. She married Adalbert Begas in 1877 and then establishedher studio in Berlin. Her subjects are landscape, architectural monuments, and interiors. Some of the latter are especially fine. Her picture of the "Burial Ground at Scutari" was an unusual subject at the time it was exhibited and attracted much attention.
Her rich gift in the use of color is best seen in her pictures of still life and flowers. In Berlin, in 1890, she exhibited "Before the Walls of Constantinople" and "From Constantinople," which were essentially different from her earlier works and attracted much attention. "Taormina in Winter" more nearly resembled her earlier pictures.
Fräulein Parmentier also studied etching, in which art Unger was her instructor. In her exquisite architectural pictures and landscapes she has represented Italian motives almost exclusively. Among these are her views of Venice and other South Italian sketches, which are also the subjects of some of her etchings.
Belle, Mlle. Andrée.Member of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. Born in Paris. Pupil of Cazin. Paints in oils and pastels, landscapes especially, of which she exhibited seventeen in June, 1902. The larger part of these were landscape portraits, so to speak, as they were done on the spots represented with faithfulness to detail. The subjects were pleasing, and the various hours of day, with characteristic lighting, unusually well rendered.
At the Salon des Beaux Arts, 1902, this artist exhibited a large pastel, "A Halt at St. Mammès" and a "Souvenir of Bormes," showing the tomb of Cazin. In 1903 she exhibited a pastel called "Calvary," now in the Museumat Amiens, which has been praised for its harmony of color and the manner in which the rainbow is represented. Her pictures of "Twilight" and "Sunset" are unusually successful.
Benato-Beltrami, Elisabetta.Painter and sculptor of the nineteenth century, living in Padua since 1858. Her talent, which showed itself early, was first developed by an unknown painter named Soldan, and later at the Royal Academy in Venice. She made copies of Guido, Sassoferrato and Veronese, the Laokoon group, and the Hercules of Canova, and executed a much-admired bas-relief called "Love and Innocence." Among her original paintings are an "Atala and Chactas," "Petrarch's First Meeting with Laura," a "Descent from the Cross" for the church at Tribano, a "St. Sebastian," "Melancholy," a "St. Ciro," and many Madonnas. Her pictures are noble in conception and firm in execution.
Benito y Tejada, Benita.Born in Bilboa, where she first studied drawing; later she went to Madrid, where she entered the Escuela superior. In the Exposition of 1876 at Madrid "The Guardian" was shown, and in 1881 a large canvas representing "The First Step."
Bernhardt, Sarah.In 1869 this famous actress watched Mathieu-Meusnier making a bust. She made her criticisms and they were always just. The sculptor told her that she had the eye of an artist and should use her talent in sculpture. Not long after she brought to him a medallion portrait of her aunt. So good was it that Mathieu-Meusnier seriously encouraged her to persevere in her art. She was fascinated by the thought of what might be possible for her, took a studio, and sent to the Salon in 1875 a bust, which attracted much attention. In 1876 she exhibited "After the Tempest," the subject taken from the story of a poor woman who, having buried two sons, saw the body of her last boy washed ashore after a storm. This work was marvellously effective, and a great future as a sculptress was foretold for the "divine Sara." At the Salon of 1878 she exhibited two portrait busts in bronze.
This remarkable woman is a painter also, and exhibited a picture called "La jeune Fille et la Mort." One critic wrote of it: "Sarah's picture shows very considerable feeling for color and more thought than the vast majority of modern paintings. The envious and evil speakers, who always want to say nasty things, pretend to trace in the picture very frequent touches of Alfred Stevens, who has been Sarah's master in painting, as Mathieu-Meusnier was in sculpture. However that may be, Sarah has posed her figures admirably and her coloring is excellent. It is worthy of notice that, being as yet a comparative beginner, she has not attempted to give any expression to the features of the young girl over whose shoulder Death is peeping."
One of the numerous ephemeral journals which the young and old jeunesse of the Latin Quarter is constantly creating has made a very clever caricature of the picture in a sort of Pompeian style. Death is represented by the grinning figure of Coquelin ainé. The legend is "'La Jeune Fille et la Mort,' or Coquelin ainé, presenting Sarah Bernhardt the bill of costs of her fugue." In other words, Coquelin is Death, handing to Sarah the undertaker's bill—300,000francs—for her civil burial at the Comédie Française.
Bethune, Louise.This architect, whose maiden name was Blanchard, was born in Waterloo, New York, 1856. She studied drawing and architecture, and in 1881 opened an office, being the first woman architect in the United States. Since her marriage to Robert A. Bethune they have practised their art together. Mrs. Bethune is the only woman holding a fellowship in the American Institute of Architects.
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Beveridge, Kühne.Honorable mention in Paris twice. Born in Springfield, Illinois. Studied under William R. O'Donovan in New York, and under Rodin in Paris.
Among her works are a statue called "Rhodesia," "Rough Rider Monument," a statue called "Lascire," which belongs to Dr. Jameson, busts of Cecil Rhodes, King Edward VII., Grover Cleveland, Vice-President Stevenson, Joseph Jefferson, Buffalo Bill, General Mahon, hero of Mafeking, Thomas L. Johnson, and many others.
Miss Beveridge was first noticed as an artist in this country in 1892, when her busts of ex-President Cleveland and Mr. Jefferson called favorable attention to her.
In 1899 she married Charles Coghlan, and soon discovered that he had a living wife at the time of her marriage and obtained a divorce. Before she went to South Africa Miss Beveridge had executed several commissions for Cecil Rhodes and others living in that country.
Her mother is now the Countess von Wrede, her homebeing in Europe, where her daughter has spent much time. She has married the second time, an American, Mr. Branson, who resides at Johannesburg, in the Transvaal.
Biffin, Sarah.1784-1850. It seems a curious fact that several persons born without arms and hands have become reputable artists. This miniature painter was one of these. Her first teacher, a man named Dukes, persuaded her to bind herself to live in his house and give her time to his service for some years. Later, when the Earl of Morton made her acquaintance, he proved to her that her engagement was not legally binding and wished her to give it up; but Miss Biffin was well treated by the Dukes and preferred to remain with them.
The Earl of Morton, however, caused her to study under Mr. Craig, and she attained wonderful excellence in her miniatures. In 1821 the Duke of Sussex, on behalf of the Society of Arts, presented her with a prize medal for one of her pictures.
She remained sixteen years with the Dukes, and during this time never received more than five pounds a year! After leaving them she earned a comfortable income. She was patronized by George III. and his successors, and Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort were her generous patrons, as well as many other distinguished persons.
After the death of the Earl of Morton she had no other friend to aid her in getting commissions or selling her finished pictures, and she moved to Liverpool. A small annuity was purchased for her, which, in addition to the few orders she received, supported her until her death atthe age of sixty-six. Her miniatures have been seen in loan collections in recent years. Her portrait of herself, on ivory, was exhibited in such a collection at South Kensington.
Bilders, Marie.Family name Van Bosse. Born in Amsterdam, 1837; died in Wiesbaden, 1900. Pupil of Van de Sande-Bakhuyzen, Bosboom, and Johannes W. Bilders. Settled in Oosterbeck, and painted landscapes from views in the neighborhood. This artist was important, and her works are admired especially by certain Dutch artists who are famous in all countries. These facts are well known to me from good authority, but I fail to find a list of her works or a record of their present position.[1]