Show OF ENGLISH ARTISTS Feminine Figures in the British Art World v CATHERINE NICHOLS THE ETCHER Mrs Henry M Stanley and Mrs JoplinEowe Sisters Who Decorate Doul ton Ware LOKDOIJ Oct 26 1SUOSplcial correspondence corre-spondence of THE HERALD Tho Society of Lady Artists hangs from five hundred to six hundred pictures at its exhibitions The quaUty of the work is usually very good showing much industry and some thought and originality At the pastel ex hibitions of the Grosvenor gallery perhaps on an average onesixth of the exhibitors I aro women At recent exhibitions at the I New gallery from forty to fifty women have been well hung A year ago seven women contnbuted to the collection of sculpture Few women send pictures to the exhibitions pf the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colors but the contribu tions of women to the lastRoyal academy exhibition were numerous enough and of sufficient interest to attract considerable attention Mrs Louise JoplingRowe is the most indefatigable probably the best known and I certainly one of the ablest of the women painters of England The length of her visiting list is a matter of interest because to use her own words 1 I y > J J I ms JOPLING ROwE have never paid a call in my life A woman of native charm the world she has not run alter has run after her She paints from morning until night seldom Inaving her studio till after tho dark has fallen but tothe bright firelight and the cozy cushions of that most delightful apartment writers actors artists society people in short the pleasantest folk in London follow her She has been one of the most zealous collectors of antique silver and the grey walls made expressive by the subdued tones of old tapestries the high white ceiling crossed by oak rafters the quaint mantel and the highbacked old chairs all work together to furnish setting for her flu ons and silver ver vases and mirrors Mr Rudvrrd Kin ling has this summer offered ancient silver images from India on her shrine Mrs Jopliu Roes face is bright and open with clear eyes and rippJng hair f Her personal charm is that of extreme naturalness she talks easily and reilily sympathizes quickly and if one sat o If talents had not made her an artist Knottier might have made her a society leader Here is a case to which Mrs Fawcdtls remark re-mark about the inconvenience of a woman changing her name applies it was asMrs Louise Jopling that she painted the two pictures which made her famous Five OClock Tea and tho splendid portrait of Ellen Terry which now hangs in the sup perroom at the Lyceum theatre By this name she still signs her pictures though Mr Joplin who was her seco nd husband nn umu uwu IUnU scars a o ann sl1e l1as since married a third husband Mr Rowe Her genius is versatile Her pastels are excellent and in oil she is equally success ful as a portrait painter in landscapes I I with glowing sunset skies and in such conceptions con-ceptions as her Charlotte Corday U a fine picture strongly and beautifully painted I She has done many sweet childpictures but if one were to expruss a preference it would be for her figures of young girls whom she invests on canvas with the most tender and delicate charm One of her recent pictures is of a maid with wonderful limpid blue eyes holding in her hand a bowl of blue violets I hear that Mary Andersonit does not seem natural to say Mrs Navarrois to sit to her i herFew Few women use the etching needle with success but Miss Catherine Maude Nichols 6 U ii = = MISS CATUEKIXE MAUDE NICHOLS whose paintings are well known to those who visit the Royal academy exhibitions is a member with Mrs Mary Nimmo Moran of New York of the Royal Society of PainterEtchers and in addition to her art work writes and writes well her vivid little novelette Old Norwich illustrated by herself being a charming thing of its kindMiss i Miss Nichols is not a Londoner To revel I in the Literary Litter so well repre I sented in one of her plates and which she evidently found on her table one must thread the mazes of tho quaint streets of the historic city of Norwich where her father who was a surgeon spent his life and wbose ancient buildings now rapidly I disapocaring will be known in the future through the loving work of her pencil Norwich is an ideal borne for an artist the soft blue haze of its atmosphere lending a dreamy poetic charm to tho time mellowed brick the irregular gables and highpitched tiled roofs of its old bouses Miss Nichols studio is in Surry street and its walls are hung with sketches of Norwich nooks and corners Her personality is striking What a strange unoatny lauer is your thought on introduction There is something al most weird in tho slight figure that seems aways to lean forward the hair and face nark as a gypsys and the deepset eyes Prefently you notice the sensitiveness of tho feature how they mirror evary pass I ingthoughtand feeling then you respond to a charming frankness and vivacity of manner and end by considering your new acquaintance contrary to all rhyme and reason a most beautiful woman Strangers Hall Norwich is one of her recentlyexhibited paintings showing an ancient oak stairway from whose balustrade two cavaliers in Sixteenth Century dress are leaning The curious old hall one corner of which she has thus preserved from the oblivion of decay is the property of the Duke of Norfolk With her sympathetic yet vigorous presenta tions of architecture she combines a feel lug for tho wildness grandeur and solitude of nature and some of her finest pictures pro the fruit of lonely rambles in the 1vrnes of thc Cornish coast in the late i I i autumn A seasu st with the lightShin l through a breaking wave Is a subject that especially appeals to her Her etched 1 work is done In pure dry point It is direct and emphatic exceeding in these qualities t lat of many of her male coworkers I I Proofs of An English Village and Reeds this latter fine effect of a lake a t sunset seen through a foreground of eeds are among the bestknown in AmerIca of her etchings She says she l kes etching because it requires decision and because it calls for plenty of idea and ittle manual labor gives you a maximum o f the soul of art to a minimum of its body have heard Mrs Earnshaw a success ul portrait painter called tho second pas elist in England Her heads are strikingly clever standing out boldly yet with subtle delicacy from the ba 1 rounds Miss arriette A Seymour applies the art of pastel painting both for portraiture and andscape l The pictures in her cheery studio in High street Kensington give mo an impression of freshness and outdoor life that is only explained when one knows that Miss Seymour climbs mountains and trains horses by way of recreation She i s a delicate woman not robust in health but in spito of this disadvantage delights i n nothing so much as a walking tour and bas painted in the open air among the high Alps until from long observation she can tell to a hundred feet the altitudo of any point sha reaches by the light and coloring When on a vacation tramp she aims to be on the move by 4 oclock in the morning and many of her I I j 4 3 JR r MISS HARRIETTE A SEYMOUR most attractive sketches picture ths cold glacier woru at sunrise She has painted he Dent Blanche at a height of 13000 feet when the cold was so intense that she could not work more than ten minutes at a ime She expresses very strongly her pinion that most art students spend too ittle time with nature and too much indoors in-doors Miss Seymour is so quiet almost so shy i n manner that you would never suspect her of her feats in controlling vicious animals ani-mals but her gentleness covers a large fund of energy and will and an Independence In-dependence and unconventionality in all her doings and opinions To one who knows her well her society is liko her pictures full of life and vigor Her At Home invitations in-vitations are for the chosen few only but are not on this account tbe less delightful Nowhere in London can one hear questions ofthe day handled more radically or with greater brilliancy The Swiss and Italian Alp and lake scenery the Devonshire moorlands and the Cornish coast have supplied the greater part of her artistic material An Afternoon After-noon in the Mountains above Grindlewald and An Evening on the Eel Alp are recent examples Mrs AlmaTadema is never in haste to exhibit but everything she shows has a distinct value Her feeling for beauty comps out in the delicate painting and peaceful atmosphere of such pictures asher as-her Summer Sabbath and her careful studies of past centuries with a tinge of the completeness and precision af her hus bands manner in faithfully represented costumes of paintinga like Soon Ready In the new house to which husband wife and daughter all artists nil busy together and all successful have lately migrated tile stately glories of Rome are reborn in Mr AlmaTademas great classic studio with its shining silver dome its pillar flanked walls its mosaic floor its purple stuffs and gilded curulo chairs Mrs Alma Tademas studio on the other hand is all Dutch and mediseval It is anuroached by a narrow passage paved with tile and is divided into a little group of diminutive rooms one of which is lined for five or six feet of its height with panels from quaintly carved Dutch cabinets A sixteenth century cen-tury window gives dim light through its latticed glass and is fortified by oak shutter shut-ter clamped with steel Blue and white Dr > lft china and old Dutch pictures are prominent features of the decoration The cottage piano has been decorated in color by the artist and her husband with staves ofF of-F I rr 5 sins ALMA TADEMAS STUDIO ancient notation Throughout the house one is constantly surprised by the recurring recur-ring contrast between tho minute wonders of Holland and the radiance of Greece I Egypt and Italy Mr Alma Tadema in his taste and personal surroundings combines the precise Dutchman with the luxurious Roman more curiously than any other man ever born Mrs Henry M Stanley will probably continue the art work for which as Miss Dorothy Tennant she was known She is said to have brought home some fine sketches made tbij summer in Switzerland though her forte is decidedly the representation repre-sentation of street children more especially such groups as were on exhibition in London just previous to her marriage and which everybody hoped would amuse Mr Stanley as they did other and presumably less partial visitors Henrietta Rae whoso husband is Mr Ernest Normand and who lives in the Holland park road studio colony is one of the most interesting of the women artists She paints graceful nudes The Misses Montalba are capable artists some of whose work has been seen in America Miss Eleanor Manly paints quaint oldworld figures which usually get good places at the academy Mrs Emma Cooper is a wellknown ex hibitor of bird pictures at the royal insti tute and elsewhere in iuemoriam nas attracted attention to Miss Margaret Dicksee It is a pathetic and beautiful little picture showing a young mother in a long black robe holding a golden haired child up to tho picture of its dead soldier father The color is very skillfully managed the bright uniform the glittering sword hanging beneath the portrait and the background of sunny and homelike room only bringing out more strongly the sadness of tho scene Most admirers of Doulton ware have seen much of the work of the Misses Florence and Hannah Barlow Miss Han nab the elder of the two sisters is known chiefly by her altogether admirable etch ings of animals upon china Miss Florence is also a designer upon Doulton pottery and reproduces with wonderful fidelity the brilliant plumage of tropic birds and the more subdued colorings of English hedge row warblers Both sisters exhibit suc cessful pictures at the Royal Academy ELIZA PUT Alt HEATOS |