Part 15

Since her début at the Salon of 1886 she has annually exhibited important works. In 1887 her bust of the danseuse, Marie Salles, was purchased by the Government for the Opera; in 1888 she exhibited a plaster statue, the "Young Scholar," and the following year the bust of her father; in 1890 a "St. Sebastian" in high relief; in 1891 an "Egyptian Harpist," which gained her a traveller's purse and an invitation from the Viceroy of Egypt; in 1893 a Renaissance bas-relief; in 1894 the superb funeral monument dedicated to her father; in 1896 she exhibited, in plaster, the "Bacchante," which in marble was a brilliant success and gained for her a second-class medal and the palmes académique, while the statue was acquired by the Government. Mlle. Itasse has also gained official recompenses in provincial exhibitions and has richly won the right to esteem herself mistress of her art.

JACQUEMART, MLLE. NÉLIE. Medals at Paris Salon, 1868, 1869, and 1870. Born in Paris. A very successful portrait painter. Among the portraits she has exhibited at the Paris Salon are those of Marshal Canrobert, General d'Aurelle de Paladines, General de Palikao, Count de Chambrun, M. Dufaure, and many others, both ladies and gentlemen. Her portrait of Thiers in 1872 was greatly admired.

Paul d'Abrest wrote of Mlle. Jacquemart, in the _Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst:_ "One feels that this artist does not take her inspirations alone from the sittings of her subjects, but that she finds the best part of her work in her knowledge of character and from her close study of the personnelle of those whom she portrays."

JANDA, HERMINIE VON. Born at Klosterbruch, 1854. Pupil of Ludwig Holanska and Hugo Darnaut. Since 1886 her landscapes have been seen in various Austrian exhibitions. One of these was bought for the "Franzens-Museum" at Brünn, while several others were acquired by the Imperial House of Austria.

JENKS, PHOEBE A. PICKERING. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1849. Mrs. Jenks writes that she has had no teachers.

Her works, being portraits, are mostly in the homes of their owners, but that of the son of T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr., has been exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and that of Mrs. William Slater and her son is in the Slater Museum at Norwich.

Mrs. Jenks has been constantly busy in portrait painting for twenty-seven years, and has had no time for clubs and societies. She esteems the fact of her constant commissions the greatest honor that she could have. She has probably painted a greater number of portraits than any other Boston contemporary artist.

JERICHAU-BAUMANN, ELIZABETH. 1819-1881. Honorable mention, Paris Salon, 1861. Member of the Academy of Copenhagen. Born in Warsaw. Pupil of Karl Sohne and Stilke, in Düsseldorf. In Rome she married the Danish sculptor Jerichau and afterward lived in Copenhagen. She travelled in England, France, Russia, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt.

Her picture of a "Polish Woman and Children Leaving Their Home, which had been Destroyed," is in the Raczynski Collection, Berlin; "Polish Peasants Returning to the Ruins of a Burnt House," in the Lansdowne Collection, London; "A Wounded Soldier Nursed by His Betrothed," in the Gallery at Copenhagen, where is also her portrait of her husband; "An Icelandic Maiden," in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg. Her picture, "Reading the Bible," was painted for Napoleon III. at his request. Mme. Jerichau painted a portrait of the present Queen of England, in her wedding dress. A large number of her works are in private houses in Copenhagen.

One of her most important pictures was a life-size representation of "Christian Martyrs in the Catacombs." This picture was much talked of in Rome, where it was painted, and the Pope desired to see it. Madame Jerichau took the picture to the Vatican. On seeing it the Pope expressed surprise that one who was not of his Church could paint this picture. Mme. Jerichau, hearing this, replied: "Your Holiness, I am a Christian."

Hans Christian Andersen was an intimate friend in the Jerichau family. He attended the wedding in Rome, and wrote the biographies of Professor and Mme. Jerichau.

Théophile Gautier once said that but three women in Europe merited the name of artists--Rosa Bonheur, Henrietta Brown, and Elizabeth Jerichau; and Cornelius called her "the one woman in the Düsseldorf School," because of her virile manner of painting.

Among her important portraits are those of Frederick VII. of Denmark, the brothers Grimm, and "Hans Christian Andersen Reading His Fairy Tales to a Child."

Mme. Jerichau was also an author. In 1874 she published her "Memories of Youth," and later, with her son, the illustrated "Pictures of Travel."

JOPLING-ROWE, LOUISE. Member of Royal Society of British Artists, Society of Portrait Painters, Pastel Society, Society of Women Artists. Born at Manchester, 1843. Pupil of Chaplin in Paris; also studied with Alfred Stevens.

Since 1871 Mrs. Jopling has been a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other London exhibitions, and frequently also at the Paris Salon.

Her pictures are principally portraits and genre subjects. Her first decided success was gained in 1874, when she exhibited at the Academy the "Japanese Tea Party," and from that time she was recognized as an accomplished artist and received as many commissions as she could execute. The Baroness de Rothschild had been convinced of Mrs. Jopling's talent before she became an artist, and had given her great encouragement in the beginning of her career. The portrait of Lord Rothschild, painted for Lord Beaconsfield, is thought to be her best work of this kind, but its owner would not allow it to be exhibited. Her portrait of Ellen Terry, which hangs in the Lyceum Theatre, was at the Academy in 1883. It is in the costume of Portia. Mrs. Jopling's pastels are of an unusual quality, delicate, strong, and brilliant. Her portraits are numerous, and from time to time she has also executed figure subjects.

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."

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.