Part 5

Imagine a woman placed in the midst of these quarrels and struggles of rival Academies, with men in strong and often fierce antagonism on all sides of her; picture not only these general difficulties, but those of a more particular sort which arise from the disabilities of her sex, her subordinate state; think of the drawbacks--the prejudices, the _convenances_ to be considered, and then the embarrassing promiscuity of life in studio and school, particularly as regards the study from the living model--and one can realise how brave, how energetic, or how ambitious must be the woman who would win the title of Artist.

It is clear that the Royal Academy's liberal measure in opening its doors to women of talent was an event of some importance, from the moral point of view at any rate. It was the public recognition of woman's capacity in matters of art, the official consecration of merit which might come to light; also it afforded a goal to strive for--a goal hard to reach and very remote, doubtless, but still a goal possible of attainment to the most courageous and the most hopeful among women. The real, as distinct from the moral, advantages were, however, rather limited. From 1663, the date which marks the admission of the first woman artist, to 1783, when the last was admitted--that is to say during a period of eighty years--exactly fifteen women painters were elected, and among them were three foreigners. In 1770, indeed, on the nomination of Mlle. Giroust, wife of Roslin, the painter, it was decided that, as there were already in the company two other women previously elected, there must not be more than four women in all within the Academy. This measure of restriction was renewed in 1783 and ratified by Royal ordinance on the election of Mme. Vigée Le Brun.

Nevertheless there was an appreciable number of women artists in France throughout the course of the 18th century. Their social rank was strictly confined. There were no "women of quality," such as were to be found in the world of letters, no representatives of the _bourgeoisie_ even. The women artists, with very rare exceptions, all belonged to artist families. They were the wives, the daughters, the sisters or the nieces of artists, and this tradition, as we shall see, even continued long into the 19th century. Catherine Duchemin, the first woman elected to the Academy, was the wife of the sculptor, Girardon, while Geneviève and Madelaine Boulogne, both academicians, were related to distinguished painters of that name. Mlle. Reboul was Mme. Vien, and Mme. Labille des Vertus became Mme. Vincent on her second marriage. Then we have Mlle. Natoire, sister of the director of the Academy of France, Catherine van Loo, one of the innumerable family of Van Loo, Mme. de Valsaureaux, _née_ Parrocel, of the no less numerous family of Parrocel, Mme. Therbouch, _née_ Liscewska, all this family, father, mother, and daughters alike, being painters; and Mme. Vigée herself, who married the picture dealer Le Brun, was the daughter of a portrait painter.

During the 17th and 18th centuries these great artist families intermarried to such an extent as to form a series of veritable dynasties--for instance, those of the Coypels, the Coustous, the Van Loos, the Boulognes, the Parrocels, and the Vernets, to name but a few of the most renowned. Artist families became allied just as do those of lawyers and merchants. Thus their social life grew more limited, each category more and more distinct and apart, for these artist families rarely strayed beyond their own _milieu_. And those very circumstances which tended to retard the development of the artistic calling in woman exerted their influence over the inspiration of the female artist. The impossibility of pursuing very far the study of anatomical drawing, owing to the nudity of the model, diverted them almost entirely to the studies of observation and of imitation, to portrait work, and flowers and animals and still-life. Later, when they obtained greater liberty, they devoted themselves to _genre_ of a size and kind demanding less substantial preparation. But as for composition, they never touched "history," as it was termed--that is, lofty, heroic or allegorical subjects--and if there should chance to have been any exception to this rule, it was simply in the direction of religious _motifs_.

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, ABOUT 1793-1824 Portrait of Gaëtano Apollino Baldassare Vestris, Dancer (1729-1808). Reproduced from a Photograph by permission of Braun, Clément & Co., Paris Madame Adèle Romany, née de Romance, Painter exhibited from 1793 to 1824]

Further, they long affected what may be called medium processes: pastel, water-colour, miniature, all kinds of work offering opportunity of finish and _éclat_. They showed a partiality for oil painting after the manner of the smaller Dutch masters, who had no more faithful imitators in all France. Mme. Vien, Mme. de Valsaureaux, _née_ Parrocel, and particularly Mme. Vallayer Coster--"_femme qui fut un habile homme_," according to the verses written in her honour--excelled in this style.

Some of the "_Académistes_"--to use the old French expression--won real celebrity, but few there were who achieved lasting glory. In the reign of Louis XIV, the woman artist whose reputation shone with the clearest lustre was Elisabeth Sophie Chéron, who excelled in all the arts--for she was a clever painter, a consummate musician, a poet of merit and _femme d'esprit_ into the bargain. Following the general rule she belonged to one of the numerous artist families. Daughter of a painter (Louis Chéron), she was also sister of a painter. This latter, who was her junior, had talent, but not to the extent of the elder. Élisabeth Sophie Chéron was of Huguenot family, as was frequently the case among the Academicians, although, from what absurd prejudice I know not, the _réformés_ were regarded as less artistic than other folk. But in 1668,--she was twenty then--terrified no doubt by the ever-increasing persecution of the Protestants--a persecution which was soon to result in the Edict of Nantes--she, like her sister, abjured her faith, whereas her brother, remaining true to the family faith, was forced to take refuge in London, where he died.[1]

[1] Several Académiciens of the reformed religion were excluded, or obliged to submit to the Catholic religion.

Sophie translated into French the Psalms of David, which her brother illustrated admirably, and she has left at least one important engraved work, but above all, she has left a number of portraits of well-known people of her time, portraits that the sitters made her copy four and even five times.

Among other "_Académistes_," interesting if not so well known, was that sister of the "_Visitandine_" order, Anne Marie Trésor, who decorated with religious subjects the church of the monastery of the "Dames de Ste. Marie de Chaillot." She was received by the Academy in 1676, and the choice of the Academy showed, as its accepted members were of such different views, that the body was after all somewhat broad in character. Another proof of this liberal spirit is to be found in the fact that the Academy received foreign artists within its body. There were three of them; the first was Mlle. Haverman, of Dutch origin, who was, however, excluded shortly after her election--she attempted to justify her election by sending in a painting which was not her own, but the work of her master, Van Huysum. The second foreign "_Académiste_" was specially illustrious and worthy of the honour conferred on her. She was Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian, a woman who was really original, and whose reputation has lived through the centuries, but about whom, in this chapter devoted to France, I must not speak at length. The last of the three was Mme. Terbouche, or, more exactly, Therbousch, who, although born in 1728 at Berlin, was numbered by our old museum catalogues in the ranks of the French School.

May 31st, 1783, was an exceptionally important date for the Academy, in respect of women artists. On that day were received Mme. Vigée Le Brun and Mme. Adélaïde Labille Guyard (or Guiard). One may say that at that very hour began officially the rivalry which constantly existed between the two women, both of real merit, throughout their careers--a rivalry which has been maintained in the preference shown for one or the other, after death, by their historians. Mme. Vigée Le Brun was the more celebrated of the two, and rightly so, for one might say that of all the women painters of her time she had a personality quite her own, quite feminine, rich in grace, ease, variety of attitude, gesture and composition, discreet and delicate affectedness, freshness and brightness. Mme. Vigée Le Brun was the daughter of a somewhat mediocre painter, and the wife of a well-known picture dealer, whom she married when quite young. She had lessons from Doyen, Greuze and Joseph Vernet, and her success was quickly achieved. Mlle. Adélaïde Labille des Vertus, the daughter of a mercer, was married to a certain Guyard, a neighbour. She did not live long with him, and had lessons from an old friend, the painter Vincent (the father), and afterwards from La Tour. While Mme. Le Brun, whose work was admired by Marie Antoinette, was supported by the Court, Mme. Guyard secretly made friends in the body of the Academy itself, painting the portraits of first one member and then another. On the day of the election, she seemed to be overcoming her rival, whom her friends succeeded in putting on one side because the rules of the Academy forbade the traffic in pictures. Mme. Le Brun was received only by order of the King. Her own autobiography, as well as the pamphlets of the time, depict for us the powerful rivalry which existed, and also the many calumnies with which the three women painters were attacked (there was a third candidate, Mme. Vallayer Coster), even in their private life, the persecution of offensive insinuations, and the existence of the accusation so often levelled against women painters, that their work is not their own. Posterity has reconciled the rivals on the walls of our galleries. If Mme. Vigée Le Brun certainly holds pride of place, Mme. Guyard, by her more solid talent, perhaps more characteristic, has an enviable position at her side.

By the side of these celebrated women there are a few others of whom the recollection is not quite so keen, but who were not without a touching grace, though they lived their life within the sphere of their masters' influence, illuminated by the renown of these masters and breathing their atmosphere. It would not be right to say that these women artists copied their masters, or slavishly imitated them, but they transposed their qualities, elevated them by feminising them. Of these, I may mention Mlle. Ledoux, who followed in the wake of Greuze; Mlle. Marguerite Gérard, who lived under the shadow of Fragonard; and that exquisite and sorrowful figure, Mlle. Constance Mayer, whose devotion for her master Prudhon found its supreme expression in her tragic end. Less brilliant, rather hidden in the twilight of history, these women yet exercise on our thoughts an influence more subtle and delicate, and more penetrating.

The approach of the great national crisis, and even the worst days of that period, at the same time glorious yet barbaric, did not extinguish the zeal of the women painters. It seems rather as though they shut themselves up in the study of their art so as to secure a refuge for their hopes and their dreams. In the first "Salons" of the century, one is surprised to find works by a comparatively large number of women painters. In 1800, of 180 exhibitors they number 25; eight years later, in the "Salon" of 1808, they are 46 out of 311. The difficulties set up by the Academy were overcome, the liberty to exhibit was a fresh encouragement, even an exceptional stimulus. The figures, therefore, rise still further in the first quarter of the century, so that in 1831 the women number 149 out of 873 exhibitors. The "staff," so to speak, of the women artists of that day, surrounding Mme. Vigée Le Brun, whose glorious and somewhat chequered career did not close till 1842, included a number of distinguished women, such as Mlle. Bevic and Mlle. Capet, pupils of Mme. Guyard; Mme. Chaudet, the wife of the sculptor; Mlle. Eulalie Morin; Mme. Adèle Romance, who also signed Romany, or Romany de Romance; the "good" Mlle. Godefroid, pupil of Baron Gérard, who helped him in so many of the portraits of contemporary cosmopolitan people of distinction, commissions for which rained in the master's studio, after the entry of the allied forces into Paris. Later on, we have Mlle. Cogniet; Mme. Filleul; Mme. Rude, the wife of the great sculptor, who had a severe yet confident talent. Lastly, there was the woman artist who benefited by all the advantages of fashion, Mme. Haudebourt-Lescot.

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, 1755-1842 MADAME VIGÉE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER. AFTER THE PAINTING IN THE LOUVRE, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., PARIS Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Painter 1755-1842]

Mlle. Lescot, wife of Haudebourt, the architect, and pupil of Lethière--mischievous tongues, of course, declared that he painted her pictures--was a strange creature, who, at the start, owed the popularity she obtained as much to her personal charm as to her real talent. Her first success was in the drawing-room, where people admired her dances. "She was," says a writer, "ugly and captivating, with crooked eyes and a charming expression, her mouth ill-shaped, but tender and inviting," such as Ingres represented her in one of his finest pencil drawings.

Hitherto, women had certainly banished themselves into the domain of portrait or still-life painting, that is to say, they had done little that was not sheer copying. But, little by little, under the influence of the lesser Dutch masters, who had been passionately appreciated since the close of the previous reign, and thanks to the opening of the Royal Collections at the Luxembourg Palace, where they could be studied and copied, the women-painters, following the example of the masters who gained inspiration therefrom, began to devote themselves to landscape and to _genre_. They sought out little touching subjects, which very frequently bordered on the ridiculous. For example, "the child's bed catches fire through the carelessness of the nurse who has fallen asleep, and the dog attempts to waken her."

Mlle. Lescot cut herself adrift from all these insipidities. The opportunity came for her to spend several years in Rome. She was struck by the popular customs of the country, by its colour and that singular and picturesque charm which Granet had been the first to discover--the charm which, after her own time, was to be made further known by the paintings of the well-known Léopold Robert. As a matter of fact, she was practically the creator of the type of exotic subjects borrowed from Italy, to which numerous artists in France devoted themselves--Hébert, Bonnat and Jules Lefebvre, to name but a few of the most important of them. In choosing her _motifs_ she displayed wit and inventiveness, and at times a delicate grace, notably in her first pictures, before the desire to satisfy a daily increasing connection had driven her into unduly hurried work. Her technique, too, was brisk, yet careful, as it should be in small works such as hers. Her lightly-touched lithographs, together with those which she did "after" her own pictures, contributed to popularise her special subjects and her name.

The novelty of these paintings, devoted to the cult of "local colour," caused them to be adopted as "romantic." It was the same with Schnetz and Léopold Robert, who shared the popularity. But the real "Young romantic" among artists was Mlle. de Fauveau. What one discovers with regard to her is that she is not a painter but a sculptor. The Royal Academy of the 17th century had already boasted certain wood carvings by _la demoiselle_ Massé. Also, there was Mme. Falconet. But the great and austere art was cultivated only as a rare exception by woman. Mlle. Félicie de Fauveau was the first pre-Raphaelite, although the return to the primitive Italian masters of the 16th century dates further back, but with cropped head under a velvet toque, after the style of Raphael himself, she unceasingly uttered curses against that noble personality, whose brush produced the highest incarnation of the art of painting.

But the naturalist movement it was that witnessed the development of the greatest artistic personality in the feminine world of to-day--Rosa Bonheur. The _rôle_ played by Rosa Bonheur is important from the feminine point of view, for the reason that she broke away from ancient traditions. She revealed what woman was capable of in the matter of energy, of continuity of purpose, of method, of scientific direction, in a word, in the indispensable impetus of inspiration. Before her day, the woman-painter had always been looked upon rather as a phenomenon, or her place in the domain of art was conceded to her on the grounds that she was indulging in an elevating and tasteful pastime, coming under the category of "accomplishments." Rosa Bonheur gave to woman a position equal to that of man. She won for herself unanimous admiration, based, not on the singularity of her life, not on looseness of morals, not on social triumphs, not on friends at Court, but on her robust, virile, observant and well-considered talent, which in its turn was based on a primary study of anatomy and osteology, developed by a continuous observation of the constitution and the life of the animal world. Her long life was crowned with glory. She held an exceptional place in art, akin to that of George Sand in the world of letters.

From that day forth, there appeared a new phase in the artistic life of woman. Art became for her, not merely an intellectual pastime, but a vocation and a career. Rosa Bonheur lived nearly to the close of the nineteenth century, seeing many revolutions both in French life and in French art, but remaining always quite true to herself. Perhaps the most uncertain period of all, historically, so far as women were concerned, was that period of wave-like fluctuation in French art that occurred in the seventies and eighties, reflecting itself in the work of such women painters as Angèle Dubos, Jeanne Fichel, Marie Petiet, Laure de Chatillon, Félicie Schneider, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Nicolas, and Rosa Bonheur's successor--her heiress, so to speak--Madame Virginie Demont-Breton, the daughter, wife and niece of a family of distinguished artists. She has achieved a well-deserved popularity with her subjects of popular and rustic life, and, like Rosa Bonheur, has attained the rank of officer of the Legion of Honour. Two other feminine personalities have attracted the attention of both public and artists, the one, the sister-in-law of Manet, the delightful Mademoiselle Morisot, who has, so to speak, improved on the refinement of her master; the other, that strange and alluring young Russian girl, who adopted France as her Fatherland, and whom France adopted as artist. Marie Bashkirtseff, struck down by a cruel and premature death, at the age of twenty-three, revealed something far more than mere happy gifts. One is surprised at the amount of studies produced by the unfortunate and beautiful creature in the short space allotted to her for her life-work.

We now enter upon the present period of woman's artistic life, the active period, let us call it. We no longer trouble about her place at our exhibitions, since she has nowadays her own exhibition, or rather exhibitions proper to herself. Among the many youthful _amateurs_ who constitute the bulk of feminine artists, one finds a number of true artists. To name a few: Mademoiselle Louise Abbéma, Madame Madeleine Lemaire, Madame Nanny Adam, Mlle. Fiérard, Mme. Vallet-Bisson, Madame Chatrousse, Madame Darmesteter, Mme. Delacroix-Garnier, Mme. Baury-Saurel, and many others, as this book proves.

Several women-artists have won their place in the National Museum, wherein first rank is held, after Rosa Bonheur and Mme. Demont-Breton, by Madame Marie Cazin, painter and sculptor, Madame Victoria Dubourg (widow of Fantin-Latour), Mlle. Dufau, who has just been commissioned to execute some important decorations for the Sorbonne, Mlle. Delasalle, Mlle. Marie Gautier, Señora Eva Gonzalès, and a couple of semi-naturalised foreigners, Miss Mary Cassatt, an American, and Mlle. Breslau, a Swiss--both dames of the Legion of Honour.

To conclude, women are proving just now not only that the domain of art should be open to them as freely as it is to men, on the grounds of right and reason, but also that they are specially gifted by their delicate sensitiveness, their quickness of comprehension, their initiative faculty, and lastly, by all the phases of their natural temperament, and by their intelligence to endow art with the elements of expression and beauty proper to womankind.

LÉONCE BÉNÉDITE.

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, 1768-1826 PORTRAIT OF MARIE PAULINE, PRINCESSE BORGHESE. AFTER THE PAINTING AT VERSAILLES, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS Madame Marie Guilhelmine Benoits, Painter 1768-1826]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVII AND XVIII CENTURIES PORTRAIT OF MADAME VICTOIRE DE FRANCE. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN CLEMENT AND CO., PARIS Madame Guyard, née Labille des Vertus, Painter 1749-1803]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MARIE DE RABUTIN-CHANTAL, MARQUISE DE SÉVIGNÉ (1626-1696) AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES, FROM A COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS Mademoiselle de Vanteuil, Painter 17th Century]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY THE SONS OF CHARLES X. OF FRANCE. AFTER AN ORIGINAL PICTURE IN THE MUSÉE DE VERSAILLES, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS Madame Anna Rosalie Filleul, née Bocquet, Painter Died 1794]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY PORTRAIT OF THE DUC D'ANGOULÊME, SON OF CHARLES X FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., PARIS, AFTER AN ORIGINAL PASTEL AT VERSAILLES Madame Filleul, née Bocquet, Pastellist Died 1794]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MADAME RÉCAMIER IN THE YEAR 1799. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., AFTER AN ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES Madame Eulalie Morin, Painter Late 18th Century]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVIII CENTURY PORTRAIT OF ELISABETH OF FRANCE, DUCHESS OF PARMA. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS Madame Adélaïde Guyard, née Labille des Vertus, Painter In second marriage Mme. F. A. Vincent 1749-1803]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XIX CENTURY Portrait of Madame Adélaïde D'Orléans (1777-1847). After the painting at Chantilly, from a Photograph by Braun, Clément & Co., Paris Mademoiselle Marie Amélie Cogniet, Painter 1798-1869]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVIII AND XIX CENTURIES PORTRAIT OF QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE AND HER CHILDREN. AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES, FROM A CARBON PRINT BY BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., PARIS Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Painter 1755-1842]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, BETWEEN 1792 AND 1820 PORTRAIT IN THE PINACOTECA AT TURIN DATED 1792. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Painter 1755-1842]

[Illustration: "THE MINIATURE." FROM THE PAINTING IN THE GLASGOW GALLERY AFTER A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL Madame Caroline de Valory, Pupil of Greuze, Painter Early 19th Century]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XVIII AND XIX CENTURIES PORTRAIT OF MADAME LE BRUN, AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL PORTRAIT OF LOUISE MARIE ADÉLAÏDE DE BOURBON (1753-1821). AFTER THE ORIGINAL PAINTING AT VERSAILLES, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWIDEIN, PARIS Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Painter 1755-1842]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, EARLY XIX CENTURY PORTRAIT OF AN ACTRESS, PROBABLY MLLE. BÉLIER. REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY PERMISSION OF BRAUN, CLÉMENT & CO., PARIS Mademoiselle Bouilliar, Painter Early 19th Century]

[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, XIX CENTURY STUDY OF A BULL REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH, BY PERMISSION OF BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO., PARIS, OWNERS OF THE COPYRIGHT Mademoiselle Rosa Bonheur, Painter 1822-1899]