Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Women artists -- Biography
Among her later portraits are those of Mrs. James Sullivan, one of the
lady commissioners of the St. Louis Exposition; Lieut.-Gen. Nelson A.
Miles; Albert, son of Dr. Shaw, editor of the _Review of Reviews_; Mrs.
A. A. F. Johnston, former Dean of Oberlin College; Augustus S. Miller,
mayor of Providence; Hon. L. F. C. Garvin, governor of Rhode Island; and
Judge Austin Adams, late of the Supreme Court of Iowa.
<b>THURWANGER, FELICITÉ CHASTANIER.</b> This remarkable artist, not long
since, when eighty-four years old, sent to the exhibition at Nice--which
is, in a sense, a branch of the Paris Salon--three portraits which she
had just finished. "They were hung in the place of honor and unanimously
voted to belong to the first class."
Mme. Thurwanger was the pupil of Delacroix during five years. The master
unconsciously did his pupil an injury by saying to her father: "That
daughter of yours is wonderfully gifted, and if she were a man I would
make a great artist of her." Hearing this, the young artist burst into
tears, and her whole career was clouded by the thought that her sex
prevented her being a really great artist, and induced in her an abnormal
modesty. This occurred about forty-five years ago; since then we have
signally changed all that!
Delacroix, who was an enthusiast in color, was the leader of one school
of his time, and was opposed by Ingres, who was so wanting in this regard
that he was accused of being color-blind.
Mme. Thurwanger had a curious experience with these artists. When but
seventeen she was commissioned by the Government to copy a picture in the
Louvre. One morning, when she was working in the Gallery, Ingres passed
by and stopped to look at her picture. He examined it carefully, and with
an expression of satisfaction said: "I am so very glad to see that you
have the true idea of art! Remember always that there is no color in
Nature; the outline is all; if the outline is good, no matter about the
coloring, the picture will be good."
This story would favor the color-blind theory, as Ingres apparently saw
color neither in the original nor the copy.
An hour later Delacroix came to watch the work of his pupil, and after a
few minutes exclaimed: "I am so happy, my dear girl, to see that you have
the true and only spirit of art. Never forget that in Nature there is no
line, no outline; everything is color!"
In 1852 Mme. Thurwanger was in Philadelphia and remained more than two
years. She exhibited her pictures, which were favorably noticed by the
Philadelphia _Enquirer_. In July of the above year her portraits were
enthusiastically praised. "Not a lineament, not a feature, however
trivial, escapes the all-searching eye of the artist, who has the happy
faculty of causing the expression of the mind and soul to beam forth in
the life-like and speaking face."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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