Women Painters of the World: From the Time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day
History
Women Painters of the World: From the Time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day
Painting -- History; Women painters -- Biography
From Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) we pass on to an admirable
mezzotint, after Morland, by Maria Prestel, who died in 1794; and then
we are brought into the heart of the 19th century by the searching
industry and skill of Anna Maria Ellenrieder, a very capable
painter-etcher, who lived between the years 1791 and 1863. Ellenrieder
looked to the past for her inspiration, going to the art of the early
Dutch masters. She has little or nothing in common with the other
German women artists of her time. How different is her ideal, for
instance, from that of the well-known painter of historical subjects,
the Baroness Hermione von Preuschen, whose dramatic and sensational
spirit appeals so strongly to the great public, as in that canvas in
which is represented the Corpse of Irene von Spilimberg, young and
beautiful, lying in state in her Venetian gondola, draped with black
and covered with flowers. Artists do not often care for pictures of
this romantic type; and they find higher and more subtle qualities in
the quiet wisdom of Julie Wolfthorn, a Berlin painter of note, and a
follower of the modern school of psychological portraiture. Julie
Wolfthorn combines depth of feeling and refinement of taste with
keenness of penetration into the mystery of individual character. Her
portrait of a young sculptor, given in the illustration on page 304,
is a good example of the painter's methods.
Another Berlin artist of note is Fräulein Käthe Kollwitz, whose
principal field of artistic expression has hitherto been restricted to
the burin and copper plate. She has studied etching almost entirely by
herself, and by dint of persistent courage and skill has developed her
gifts in a direction all her own. The subjects that appeal most
forcibly to her mind are taken with scarcely an exception from the
darkest and most painful sides of social life and social unrest. Take
a glance at the father, mother, and child, reproduced on page 302, and
entitled "Destitution and Despair." Are you not inclined to marvel,
almost, how a woman had the courage to depict, without flinching, the
sad truths of such bitter poverty? Can you not fancy that you hear the
moan of misery, the shrill scream of starvation, the cries of
rebellion and death, as when, on the outbreak of the strike, the bulk
of the working classes casts itself upon the streets? Such masses in
motion have been made real to us in her series of plates from the
"Peasants' War."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account