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54 SOCIETY OF FEMALE ARTISTS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
— :—»«Fr»~- ¦ ¦ ¦¦ We Our Reasons Gave A...
ourselves . Look at Holbein * Vandyke , Sir Josh . ua , how they caught the aristocratic intellect of their respective ages ; and at Wilkiehow
, lie penetrated life among the poor . How heartily intimate is old David Coxwith the sublime aspects of English nature ; how
de-. licately expressive the pencil of William Hunt ! Rosa Bonheur not only paints the hide of a Bull , but brings out in his eyes all , or more
than all , that he can put into his bovine bellow ; and Miss Sellon , in her " Momentous Question" struck straiht at the heart of a popular
sympathy which has been reflected , from the g glass panes of a thousand shops . In true paintingas in true poetrythere must be something
more than mere description , ; even if that be , of a perfect kind . The one female exhibitor who means something , and says what
she means , is Miss Florence Claxton , whose every stroke is instinct with thought . Somebody is always sure to be sitting and poring
over her scenes from the " Life of an Old Bachelor , " and those from the " Life of an Old Maid . " " We think they arestrictly speaking
, , the best pictures here , being so good of their kind . Mrs . E . Murray is as bright , dashing , and charming as ever , and
as apt to be untrue . She is a born artist ; but , unfortunately , a knowledge of anatomy does not lurk in the blood like a love of
color . Her " Italian Goatherd" has the face of a woman , and seems to be looking at ou in layful derision of her assumed
costume ; but , unhappily , y he , or p she , is as devoid of legs as a Chelsea pensioner , and the whole figure , though painted with ease and
spirit and lovely color , bears a whimsical resemblance to a top . In the same waya young boy in another of her pictures has a swollen
face , and the , commiserating spectator , knowing how cold and damp a day can dawn even in the glorious skies of Home , is tempted
to say , " Oh ! the mumps !"• Yet Mrs . Murray enjoys herself so heartily that she forces her spectator to enjoy himself alsoand we
, do not wonder that she sells everything that she exhibits . Her painting is like some singing and some dancingirresistible by its
boiihommie and grace . , Miss Marianne Stone is the very reverse , careful and somewhat
heavy ; yet the pencil often lingers over her name in the catalogue . Miss Louise Rayner paints old edifices very well ; Mrs . Higford Burr
recalls pleasantly to our mind the dear delicate architecture of Italy , in those early days when the unfortunate aspirations of the Renaissance
had not darkened the vision of her artists ; such architecture as yet glorifies Florence , Pisa , and Verona , but has , alas ! been well nigh
rooted out of Rome , save in those dainty but neglected cloisters of St . John Lateran , which are alike her pride and her disgrace .
Mrs . Bodichon sends an elaborate sketch from nature of a " Pine Swamp " in the southern states of America . Also another of a scene
near Algiers . This lady ' s paintings possess the truth and power ensured by their being actual transcripts from nature .
Mrs . Withers paints very carefully , but we feel a slight want of
transparency and clearness ; the _snowlberries which delight child-
54 Society Of Female Artists.
54 SOCIETY OF FEMALE ARTISTS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1859, page 54, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031859/page/54/
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