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
Helene Schjerfbeck (1863), also a pupil of the Finnish Schools of Art
and of Prof. Becker's Private Academy, continued her studies in Paris
and afterwards visited Brittany, England, Austria and Italy. She has
painted some important historical pictures, taking her subjects from
Finnish and Swedish history, as in her two admirable paintings,
"Liuköping's Prison in 1600" and "The Death of W. v. Schwerin." She
has also painted a few landscapes and a number of genre pictures, many
of them with subjects taken from French and English life. Helene
Schjerfbeck has exhibited both at home and at the Paris Salons, has
twice been awarded the lesser money prize given yearly by the Finnish
State (for the two historical pictures mentioned above), while at the
Exhibition in Paris in 1889, she received a bronze medal. She has also
held an appointment as teacher in the Finnish Academy of Art, in the
department of painting and in the drawing class from the living model.
Her many pictures have been among the best that our women artists have
produced.
Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (1860) is another pupil of the Finnish Schools
of Art and of Prof. Becker's Academy, and has studied later in Paris,
and in Spain and Italy. Her best work is in the genre style, many of
her pictures being very characteristic and true scenes of Finnish
peasant life, such as "Meal time in a Peasant's Hut" and "Pietists."
Her landscapes, too, are remarkable for a sensitive conception of
Nature; especially is this true of her pictures of our coast scenery,
with its low granite rocks, washed over by the sea waves. Mrs.
Soldan-Brofeldt has illustrated also some books for children, among
others a part of a large Scandinavian edition of Topelius' Saga tales
for children. At the Paris Exhibition of 1889, she received a "Mention
Honorable," and in 1900, a bronze medal. She is the wife of the
author, Juhani Aho. Brofeldt. Mrs. Soldan-Brofeldt's work is not
illustrated in this book, as a photograph of her most important
picture was broken into fragments in its journey from Finland to
London.
It is characteristic of all these painters that their artistic bias
was determined by their study in Paris of the French naturalists, who
inspired them with a stern respect for drawing, and taught them to
study Nature seriously. Starting from this common standpoint, they
have, whilst working in their own way, developed along their own
individual lines.
Many another woman artist deserves mention, but the limited space at
my disposal permits me to give only a list of their names.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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