Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. · Chapter 12Women in the Fine Arts (10)
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Of late years Mrs. Jopling has been much occupied with a School of Painting. The large number of pupils who wished to study with her made a school the best means of teaching them, and has been successful. From the beginning they draw from life, and at the same time they also study from the antique.
Many of her pupils receive good prices for their works, and also earn large sums for their portraits in black and white.
Mrs. Jopling writes: "What I know I chiefly learned alone. Hard work and the genius that comes from infinite pains, the eye to see nature, the heart to feel nature, and the courage to follow nature—these are the best qualifications for the artist who would succeed."
In the Art Journal, July, 1874, I read: "'The Five-o'Clock Tea' is the largest and most important design we have seen from Mrs. Jopling's hand, and in the disposition of the various figures and the management of color it certainly exhibits very remarkable technical gifts. Especially do we notice in this lady's work a correct understanding of the laws of tone, very rare to find in the works of English painters, giving the artist power to bring different tints, even if they are not harmonious, into right relations with one another."
The above-named picture was sold to the Messrs. Agnew, and was followed by "The Modern Cinderella," which was seen at the Paris Exposition in 1878; at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876 she exhibited "Five Sisters of York."
Mrs. Jopling is also known as the founder and president of the Society of the Immortals. She has written several short tales, some poems, and a book called "Hints to Amateurs."
At the Royal Academy, 1903, she exhibited "Hark! Hark! the Lark at Heaven's Gate Sings," which is a picture of a poor girl beside a table, on which she has thrown her work, and leaning back in her chair, with hands clasped behind her head, is lost in thought.
Joris, Signorina Agnese—pseudonym, Altissimi. Was accorded the title of professor at the Institute of the Fine Arts, Rome, 1881. She was successful in a competition for a position in the Scuole Tecniche, Rome, 1888. Honorable mention, Florence, 1890; same at Palermo, 1891 and 1892; silver medal of first class and diploma of silver medal, Rome, 1899 and 1900. Member of the Società Cooperativa, Rome. Born in the same city, and pupil of the Institute of Fine Arts and of her brother, Cavaliere Professore Pio Joris.
This artist writes that a list of her works would be too long and require too much time to write it. They are in oils, pastel, and water-colors, with various applications of these to tapestries, etc. She also gives lessons in these different methods of painting. In a private collection in New York is her "Spanish Scene in the Eighteenth Century."
She painted a "portrait of the late King Humbert, arranged in the form of a triptych surrounded by a wreath of flowers, painted from some which had lain on the King's bier." She sent this picture to Queen Margharita, "who not only graciously accepted it, but sent the artist a beautiful letter and a magnificent jewel on which was the Royal Cipher."
Kaerling, Henriette. Born about 1832. Daughter of the artist, J. T. Kaerling, who was her principal teacher. She practised her art as a painter of portraits, genre subjects, and still-life in Budapest during some years before her marriage to the pianist Pacher, with whom she went to Vienna. She there copied some of the works of the great painters in the Gallery, besides doing original work of acknowledged excellence. In addition to her excellent portraits, she painted in 1851 "The Grandmother"; in 1852, "A Garland with Religious Emblems"; in 1855, "A Crucifix Wound with Flowers."
Kalckreuth, Countess Maria. Medal at Chicago Exposition, 1893. Member of the Society of Women Artists in Berlin. Born at Düsseldorf. 1857-1897. Much of her artistic life was passed in Munich. Her picture at Chicago was later exhibited at Berlin and was purchased for the Protestant Chapel at Dachau. It represented "Christ Raising a Repentant Sinner"—a strong work, broadly painted. Among her important pictures are "In the Sunshine," "Fainthearted," "Discontented," and several portraits, all of which show the various aspects of her artistic talent.
Kauffman, Angelica. An original member of the London Academy. She was essentially an Italian artist, since from the age of eleven she lived in Italy and there studied her art. Such different estimates have been made of her works that one may quote a good authority in either praise or blame of her artistic genius and attainment.
Kugler, a learned, unimpassioned critic, says: "An easy talent for composition, though of no depth; a feeling for pretty forms, though they were often monotonous and empty, and for graceful movement; a coloring blooming and often warm, though occasionally crude; a superficial but agreeable execution, and especially a vapid sentimentality in harmony with the fashion of the time—all these causes sufficiently account for her popularity."
Alinari, Photo
In the Uffizi, Florence
PORTRAIT OF ANGELICA KAUFFMAN
Painted By Herself
Raphael Mengs, himself an artist, thus esteems her: "As an artist she is the pride of the female sex in all times and all nations. Nothing is wanting—composition, coloring, fancy—all are here."
Miss Kate Thompson writes: "Her works showed no originality nor any great power of execution, and, while sometimes graceful, were generally weak and insipid."
For myself I do not find her worthy of superlative praise or condemnation; one cannot deny her grace in design, which was also creditably correct; her poetical subjects were pleasing in arrangement; her historical subjects lacked strength and variety in expression; her color was as harmonious and mellow as that of the best Italian colorists, always excepting a small number of the greatest masters, and in all her pictures there is a something—it must have been the individuality of the artist—that leads one to entertain a certain fondness for her, even while her shortcomings are fully recognized.
The story of Angelica Kauffman's life is of unusual interest. She was born at Coire, in the Grisons. 1742-1807. Her father, an artist, had gone from Schwarzenburg to Coire to execute some frescoes in a church, and had married there. When Angelica was a year old the family settled in Morbegno, in Lombardy. Ten years later, when the child had already shown her predilection for painting and music, a new home was made for her in Como, where there were better advantages for her instruction.
Her progress in music was phenomenal, and for a time she loved her two arts—one as well as the other—and could make no choice between them. In one of her pictures she represented herself as a child, standing between allegorical figures of Music and Painting.
The exquisite scenery about Como, the stately palaces, charming villas, the lake with its fairy-like pleasure boats, and the romantic life which there surrounded this girl of so impressionable a nature, rapidly developed the poetic element born with her, which later found expression through her varied talents. During her long life the recollections of the two years she passed at Como were among the most precious memories associated with her wandering girlhood.
From Como she was taken to Milan, where she had still better advantages for study, and a world of art was opened to her which far exceeded her most ardent imaginings. Leonardo had lived and taught in Milan, and his influence with that of other Lombard masters stirred Angelica to her very soul.
Her pictures soon attracted the attention of Robert d'Este, who became her patron and placed her in the care of the Duchess of Carrara. This early association with a circle of cultured and elegant men and women was doubtless the origin of the self-possession and modest dignity which characterized Angelica Kauffman through life and enabled her becomingly to accept the honors that were showered upon her.
Her happy life at Milan ended all too soon. Her mother died, and her father decided to return to his native Schwarzenburg to execute some extensive decorative works in that vicinity. In the interior decoration of a church Angelica painted in fresco the figures of the twelve apostles after engravings from the works of Piazetta.
The coarse, homely life of Schwarzenburg was in extreme contrast to that of Milan and was most uncongenial to a sensitive nature; but Angelica was saved from melancholy by the companionship she felt in the grand pine forests, which soothed her discontent, while her work left her little time to pine for the happiness she had left or even to mourn the terrible loss of her mother.
Her father's restlessness returned, and they were again in Milan for a short time, and then in Florence. Here she studied assiduously awhile, but again her father's discontent drove him on, and they went to Rome.
Angelica was now eighteen years old, and in a measure was prepared to profit by the aid and advice of Winckelmann. He conceived an ardent friendship for the young artist, and, though no longer young, and engaged in most important and absorbing research, he found time to interest himself in Angelica's welfare, and allowed her to paint his portrait, to which she gave an expression which proved that she had comprehended the spirit of this remarkable man of threescore years.
While at Rome Angelica received a commission to copy some pictures in Naples. After completing these she returned to Rome, in 1764, and continued her studies for a time, but her interests were again sacrificed to her father's unreasonable capriciousness, and she was taken to Bologna and then to Venice. This constant change was disheartening to Angelica and of the greatest disadvantage to her study, and it was most fortunate that she now met Lady Wentworth, who became her friend and afterward took her to England.
Angelica had already executed commissions for English families of rank whom she had met in various cities of Italy, and her friends hoped that she would be able to earn more money in England than in Italy, where there were numberless artists and copyists. After visiting Paris she went to London, where a brilliant career awaited her, not only as an artist, but in the social world as well.
De Rossi thus describes her at this time: "She was not very tall, but slight, and her figure was well proportioned. She had a dark, clear complexion, a gracious mouth, white and equal teeth, and well-marked features;... above all, her azure eyes, so placid and so bright, charmed you with an expression it is impossible to write; unless you had known her you could not understand how eloquent were her looks."
Her English friends belonged to the most cultivated circles, many of them being also of high rank. Artists united to do her honor—showing no professional envy and making no opposition to her election to the Academy. Many interesting incidents in her association with London artists are related, and it is said that both Fuseli and Sir Joshua Reynolds were unsuccessful suitors for her hand. Miss Thackeray, in her novel, "Miss Angel," makes Angelica an attractive heroine.
The royal family were much interested in her, and the mother of the King visited her—an honor never before accorded to an artist—and the Princess of Brunswick gave her commissions for several pictures.
De Rossi says that her letters at this time were those of a person at the summit of joy and tranquillity. She was able to save money and looked hopefully forward to a time when she could make a home for her unthrifty father. But this happy prosperity was suddenly cut short by her own imprudence.
After refusing many eligible offers of marriage, she was secretly married to an adventurer who personated the Count de Horn, and succeeded by plausible falsehoods in convincing her that it was necessary, for good reasons, to conceal their marriage. One day when painting a portrait of Queen Charlotte, who was very friendly to the artist, Angelica was moved to confide the secret of her marriage to the Queen. Until this time no one save her father had known of it.
Her Majesty, who loved Angelica, expressed her surprise and interest and desired that Count de Horn should appear at Court. By this means the deceit which had been practised was discovered, and the Queen, as gently as possible, told Angelica the truth. At first she felt that though her husband was not the Count de Horn and had grossly deceived her, he was the man she had married and the vows she had made were binding. But it was soon discovered that the villain had a living wife when he made his pretended marriage with Angelica, who was thus released from any consideration for him. This was a time to prove the sincerity of friends, and Angelica was comforted by the steadfastness of those who had devoted themselves to her in her happier days. Sir Joshua Reynolds was untiring in his friendly offices for her and for her helpless old father.
There were as many differing opinions in regard to Angelica Kauffman, the woman, as in regard to the quality of her art. Some of her biographers believed her to be perfectly sincere and uninfluenced by flattery. Nollekens takes another view; he calls her a coquette, and, among other stories, relates that when in Rome, "one evening she took her station in one of the most conspicuous boxes in the theatre, accompanied by two artists, both of whom, as well as many others, were desperately enamoured of her. She had her place between her two adorers, and while her arms were folded before her in front of the box, over which she leaned, she managed to clasp a hand of both, so that each imagined himself the cavalier of her choice."
When Angelica could rise above the unhappiness and mortification of her infatuation for the so-called De Horn, she devoted herself to her art, and during twelve years supported her father and herself and strengthened the friendships she had gained in her adopted land. At length, in 1781, her father's failing health demanded their return to Italy; and now, when forty years old, she married Antonio Zucchi, an artist who had long loved her and devoted himself to her and to her father with untiring affection.
The old Kauffman lived to visit his home in Schwarzenburg and to reach Southern Italy, but died soon after.
Signor Zucchi made his home in Rome. He was a member of the Royal Academy, London, and was in full sympathy with his wife in intellectual and artistic pursuits and pleasures. De Rossi says: "It was interesting to see Angelica and her husband before a picture. While Zucchi spoke with enthusiasm Angelica remained silent, fixing her eloquent glance on the finest portions of the work. In her countenance one could read her emotions, while her observations were limited to a few brief words. These, however, seldom expressed any blame—only the praises of that which was worthy of praise. It belonged to her nature to recognize the beauty alone—as the bee draws honey only out of every flower."
Her home in Rome was a centre of attraction to the artistic and literary society of the city, and few persons of note passed any time there without being presented to her. Goethe and Herder were her friends, and the former wrote: "The good Angelica has a most remarkable, and for a woman really unheard-of, talent; one must see and value what she does and not what she leaves undone. There is much to learn from her, particularly as to work, for what she effects is really marvellous." In his work called "Winckelmann and His Century," Goethe again said of her: "The light and pleasing in form and color, in design and execution, distinguish the numerous works of our artist. No living painter excels her in dignity or in the delicate taste with which she handles the pencil."
In the midst of the social demands on her time in Rome, she continued to devote herself to her art, and Signor Zucchi, hoping to beguile her into idleness, purchased a charming villa at Castel Gondolfo; but in spite of its attractions she was never content to be long away from Rome and her studio.
Thus in her maturer years her life flowed on in a full stream of prosperity until, in 1795, Signor Zucchi died. Angelica survived him twelve years—years of deep sadness. Not only was her personal sorrow heavy to bear, but the French invasion of her beloved Italy disquieted her. Hoping to regain her usual spirits, she revisited the scenes of her youth and remained some time in Venice with the family of Signor Zucchi. Returning to Rome she resumed her accustomed work, so far as her health permitted.
She held fast to the German spirit through all the changes in her life, with the same determination which made it possible, in her strenuous labors, to retain her gentle womanliness. Just before she died she desired to hear one of Gellert's spiritual odes.
She was buried in Sant' Andrea dei Frati, beside her husband. All the members of the Academy of St. Luke attended her obsequies, and her latest pictures were borne in the funeral procession. Her bust was placed in the Pantheon, and every proper tribute and honor were paid to her memory in Rome, where she was sincerely mourned.
Although Angelica lived and worked so long in London and was one of the thirty-six original members of the Royal Academy, I do not think her best pictures are in the public galleries there. Of course many of the portraits painted in London are in private collections. Her pictures are seen in all the important galleries of Europe. Her etchings, executed with grace and spirit, are much esteemed and sell for large prices. Engravings after her works by Bartolozzi are most attractive; numerous as they were, good prints of them are now rare and costly.
She painted several portraits of herself; one is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, one at Munich, and a third in the Uffizi, Florence. The last is near that of Madame Le Brun, and the contrast between the two is striking. Angelica is still young, but the expression of her face is so grave as to be almost melancholy; she is sitting on a stone in the midst of a lonely landscape; she has a portfolio in one hand and a pencil in the other, and so unstudied is her pose, and so lacking in any attempt to look her best, that one feels that she is entirely absorbed in her work. The Frenchwoman could not forget to be interesting; Angelica was interesting with no thought of being so.
I regard three works by this artist, which are in the Dresden Gallery, as excellent examples of her work; they are "A Young Vestal," "A Young Sibyl," and "Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus."
On the margin of one of her pictures she wrote: "I will not attempt to express supernatural things by human inspiration, but wait for that till I reach heaven, if there is painting done there."
In 1784 Angelica Kauffman painted "Servius Tullius as a Child" for the Czar of Russia; in 1786 "Hermann and Thusnelda" and "The Funeral of Pallas" for Joseph II. These are now in the Vienna Gallery. Three pictures, "Virgil Reading the Æneid to the Empress Octavia," "Augustus Reading Verses on the Death of Marcellus," and "Achilles Discovered by Ulysses, in Female Attire," were painted for Catherine II. of Russia. "Religion Surrounded by Virtues," 1798, is in the National Gallery, London. A "Madonna" and a "Scene from the Songs of Ossian" are in the Aschaffenburg Gallery. A "Madonna in Glory" and the "Women of Samaria," 1799, are in the New Pinakothek, Munich, where is also the portrait of Louis I. of Bavaria, as Crown Prince, 1805. The "Farewell of Abelard and Heloise," together with other works of this artist, are in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. A "Holy Family," and others, in the Museo Civico, Venice. "Prudence Warning Virtue against Folly," in the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia. Portraits of Winckelmann in the Städel Institute, Frankfort, and in the Zürich Gallery. Portrait of a Lady, Stuttgart Museum; the Duchess of Brunswick, Hampton Court Palace; the architect Novosielski, National Gallery, Edinburgh. In addition to the portraits of herself mentioned above, there are others in Berlin Museum, the Old Pinakothek, Munich, the Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, and in the Philadelphia Academy.
Kaula, Mrs. Lee Lufkin. Member of the Woman's Art Club, New York. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania. Pupil in New York of Charles Melville Dewey and the Metropolitan Art Schools; in Paris, during three years, pupil of Girardot, Courtois, the Colarossi Academy, and of Aman-Jean.
Mrs. Kaula is essentially a portrait painter, although she occasionally paints figure subjects. Her portraits are in private hands in various cities, and her works have been exhibited in Paris, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, etc. She paints in both oil and water-colors.
Kayser, Ebba. Medals in Vienna, Dresden, and Cologne for landscapes and flower pieces. Born in Stockholm, 1846. When twenty years old she went to Vienna, where she studied under Rieser, Geyling, and Karl Hannold. She did not exhibit her works until 1881, since when she has been favorably known, especially in Austria. A water-color of a "Mill near Ischl" and several other pictures by this artist have been purchased for the Imperial Collections.
Keith, Dora Wheeler.
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Kemp-Welch, Lucy Elizabeth. Fellow and Associate of Herkomer School, and member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Born at Bournemouth, 1869. Has exhibited annually at the Royal Academy since 1894. In 1897 her picture of "Colt Hunting in the New Forest" was purchased by the trustees of the Chantrey Bequest; in 1900 that of "Horses Bathing in the Sea" was bought for the National Gallery at Victoria. In 1901 she exhibited "Lord Dundonald's Dash on Lady-smith."
In July, 1903, in his article on the Royal Academy Exhibition, the editor of the Magazine of Art, in enumerating good pictures, mentions: "Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch's well-studied 'Village Street' at dusk, and her clever 'Incoming Tide,' with its waves and rocks and its dipping, wheeling sea gulls."
Mr. Frederick Wetmore, in writing of the Spring Exhibition of the Royal Painter Etchers, says: "Miss Kemp-Welch, whose best work, so delicate that it could only lose by the reduction of a process block, shows the ordinary English country, the sign-post of the crossways, and the sheep along the lane."
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Kendell, Marie von. Born in Lannicken, 1838. Pupil of Pape, Otto von Kameke, and Dressier. She travelled in England, Italy, and Switzerland, and many of her works represent scenes in these countries. In 1882 she painted the Cadinen Peaks near Schluderbach, in the Ampezzo Valley. At the exhibition of the Women Artists in Berlin, 1892, she exhibited two mountain landscapes and a view of "Clovelly in Devonshire." The last was purchased by the Emperor. To the same exhibition in 1894 she contributed two Swiss landscapes, which were well considered.
Kielland, Kitty. Sister of the famous Norwegian novelist, Alexander Kielland. Her pictures of the forests and fjords of Norway are the best of her works and painted con amore. Recently she exhibited a portrait which was much praised and said to be so fresh and life-like in treatment, so flexible and vivacious in color, that one is involuntarily attracted by it, without any knowledge of the original.
Killegrew, Anne. Was a daughter of Dr. Henry Killegrew, a prebendary of Westminster Cathedral. Anne was born in 1660, and when still quite young was maid of honor to the Duchess of York, whose portrait she painted as well as that of the future King James II. She also painted historical subjects and still-life.
One of her admirers wrote of her as "A grace for beauty and a muse for wit." A biographer records her death from smallpox when twenty-five years old, "to the unspeakable reluctancy of her relatives." She was buried in the Savoy Chapel, now a "Royal Peculiar," and a mural tablet set forth her beauty, accomplishments, graces, and piety in a Latin inscription.
Anne Killigrew was notable for her poetry as well as for her painting. Dryden wrote an ode in her memory which Dr. Johnson called "the noblest our language has produced." It begins: "Thou youngest virgin daughter of the skies." After praising her poetry Dryden wrote:
"Her pencil drew whate'er her soul designed,
And oft the happy draught surpassed the image of her mind."
Of her portrait of James II. he says:
"For, not content to express his outward part,
Her hand called out the image of his heart;
His warlike mind—his soul devoid of fear—
His high designing thoughts were figured there."
Having repeated these panegyrics, it is but just to add that two opinions existed concerning the merit of Mistress Killigrew's art and of Dryden's ode, which another critic called "a harmonious hyperbole, composed of the Fall of Adam—Arethusa—Vestal Virgins—Dian—Cupid—Noah's Ark—the Pleiades—the fall of Jehoshaphat—and the last Assizes."
Anthony Wood, however, says: "There is nothing spoken of her which she was not equal to, if not superior, and if there had not been more true history in her praises than compliment, her father never would have suffered them to pass the press."
Kindt, Adele. This painter of history and of genre subjects won her first prize at Ghent when less than twenty-two, and received medals at Douai, Cambrai, Ghent, and Brussels before she was thirty-two. Was made a member of the Brussels, Ghent, and Lisbon Academies. Born in Brussels, 1805. Pupil of Sophie Frémiet and of Navez. Her picture of the "Last Moments of Egmont" is in the Ghent Museum; among her other historical pictures are "Melancthon Predicting Prince Willem's Future" and "Elizabeth Sentencing Mary Stuart," which is in the Hague Museum. The "Obstinate Scholar" and "Happier than a King" are two of her best genre pictures.
King, Jessie M. A most successful illustrator and designer of book-covers, who was educated as an artist in the Glasgow School of Decorative Art. In this school and at that of South Kensington she was considered a failure, by reason of her utterly unacademic manner. She did not see things by rule and she persistently represented them as she saw them. Her love of nature is intense, and when she illustrated the "Jungle Book" she could more easily imagine that the animals could speak a language that Mowgli could understand, than an academic artist could bring himself to fancy for a moment. Her work is full of poetic imagination, of symbolism, and of the spirit of her subject.
Walter P. Watson, in a comprehensive critique of her work, says: "Her imaginations are more perfect and more minutely organized than what is seen by the bodily eye, and she does not permit the outward creation to be a hindrance to the expression of her artistic creed. The force of representation plants her imagined figures before her; she treats them as real, and talks to them as if they were bodily there; puts words in their mouths such as they should have spoken, and is affected by them as by persons. Such creation is poetry in the literal sense of the term, and Miss King's dreamy and poetical nature enables her to create the persons of the drama, to invest them with appropriate figures, faces, costumes, and surroundings; to make them speak after their own characters."
Her important works are in part the illustrations of "The Little Princess," "The Magic Grammar," "La Belle Dame sans Merci," "L'Evangile de l'Enfance," "The Romance of the Swan's Nest," etc.
She also makes exquisite designs for book-covers, which have the spirit of the book for which they are made so clearly indicated that they add to the meaning as well as to the beauty of the book.
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Kirchsberg, Ernestine von. Medal at Chicago Exposition, 1893. Born in Verona, 1857. Pupil of Schäffer and Darnaut. This artist has exhibited in Vienna since 1881, and some of her works have been purchased for the royal collection. Her landscapes, both in oil and water-colors, have established her reputation as an excellent artist, and she gains the same happy effects in both mediums. Her picture shown at Chicago was "A Peasant Home in Southern Austria."
Kirschner, Marie. Born at Prague, 1852. Pupil of Adolf Lier in Munich, and Jules Dupré and Alfred Stevens in Paris. In 1883 she travelled in Italy, and has had her studio in Berlin and in Prague. The Rudolfinum at Prague contains her "Village Tulleschitz in Bohemia." She is also, known by many flower pieces and by the "Storm on the Downs of Heyst," "Spring Morning," and a "Scene on the Moldau."
Kitson, Mrs. H. H. Honorable mention, Paris Exposition, 1889; and the same at Paris Salon, 1890; two medals from Massachusetts Charitable Association; and has exhibited in all the principal exhibitions of the United States. Born in Brookline. Pupil of her husband, Henry H. Kitson, and of Dagnan-Bouveret in Paris.
The women of Michigan commissioned Mrs. Kitson to make two bronze statues representing the woods of their State for the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago. Her principal works are the statue of a volunteer for the Soldiers' Monument at Newburyport; Soldiers' Monument at Ashburnham; Massachusetts State Monument to 29th, 35th, and 36th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at National Military Park at Vicksburg; also medallion portraits of Generals Dodge, Ransom, Logan, Blair, Howard, A. J. Smith, Grierson, and McPherson, for the Sherman Monument at Washington.