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MINIATURE PAINTERS.

won distinction. In addition to those already named, we may borrow Vasari's enumeration. He speaks of Susanna, the sister of Lucas Horebout of Ghent, who was invited to England by our Henry the VIII., and lived there in much honour for the remainder of her life; Clara Skeysers of Ghent, who died unmarried at the age of eighty; Anna, daughter of a forgotten physician, Master Segher; Livina, daughter of Master Simon Baruch of Bruges, who was nobly married in England by Henry VIII., was held in great esteem by Queen Mary, and afterwards by Queen Elizabeth; and Caterina, the daugher of Giovanni d'Hunson, who went into Spain, and entered the service of the Queen of Hungary.

The wife of Bishop Hoadley belonged, in her maiden days, to the ranks of female artists. As Miss Sarah Curtis, she was a pupil of Mrs. Beale, and gained her livelihood by portraitpainting. After her marriage she practised the art only for her amusement, though if we may judge of her talents, says Walpole, from her portrait of Whiston, the art lost as much as she gained. But ostentation, he adds, was below the simplicity of character that ennobled that excellent family. He does not explain, however, why portrait-painting by a bishop's wife should be stigmatised as ostentation. Walpole mentions a Mistress Anne Carlisle as flourishing in the reign of Charles I., when she was much admired for her copies from Italian masters. According to Graham, she was held in so much esteem by the King, a liberal and enlightened patron of art, that at one time he presented her and Vandyck with as much ultramarine as cost upwards of £500. Vertue refers to her teaching a lady to paint, whose picture she drew standing behind her own; herself sitting with a book of drawings in her lap. She died in 1680 at an advanced age. A Mistress Elizabeth Neal is mentioned by De Bie as residing, about 1660, in Holland, and painting flowers with so much excellence as to dispute the palm with their famous Zeghers.

We do not propose, however, to attempt an exhaustive catalogue of female artists. Our object is simply to show that, under peculiarly unfavourable conditions, they have reached a high standard of excellence, and to impress upon our young maidens that to women with definite artistic tastes and talents the pursuit of art offers an honourable career, in which they may hope to compete with their brothers on no unequal terms.

INDUSTRY IN ART.

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We believe they are capable of as much perseverance, as much patience, and as much energy. If some of the greatest painters, such as Tintoretto, the son of a dyer, and Giotto, the poor peasant boy, have worked their way onward in defiance of discouragement and poverty, so can women. If others have risen from the humblest positions, like Turner, the son of a barber, and Claude, the son of a pastrycook, so can women rise when possessed by a true enthusiasm. We believe that they will be content to accept Sir Joshua Reynold's axiom, that those who are resolved to excel must go to their work, willing or unwilling, morning, noon, and night; they will find it no play, but very hard labour. But in what vocation, may we not ask, is success possible without "very hard labour"? Knowledge is a jealous mistress, and demands that her disciples shall surrender themselves to her body and soul; shall give her of their best without stint or pause, on pain of losing the blessed sunlight of her divine countenance. It is recorded of Titian that he spent eight years of toil upon his great picture of "Peter the Martyr." It is known that Michael Angelo would rise at midnight to resume his work, fixing the candle, by the light of which he used his wondrous chisel, into the top of his cap of pasteboard. But are not women capable of industry quite as persistent and indefatigable? Is it not true that they excel men in their capacity of quiet endurance and their unpretending patience? "If you have genius," said a wise teacher, "industry will improve it; if you have none, industry will supply its place." This we conceive to be the exaggeration of a great truth. Industry will hardly supply that fertility of conception and boldness of execution which genius possesses, but it is certain that without it the greatest powers will be of less avail than very humble talents when sustained by a spirit of resolute and well-directed diligence. Industry alone will not make a Titian, but no more will genius. That the industrious may attain to a very respectable proficiency is proved by the example of Maria Angelina Kaufmann. She had taste and talent, and a passionate love of art, but the divine gift of genius was denied to her. Her father, however, educated her carefully, and she herself was resolved to make the most of what she was taught. At Milan, and afterwards at Rome, she patiently studied the productions of the great masters, and spent long hours every day at work, humbly and laboriously

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endeavouring to imitate their beauties of grace and colour. She would not permit herself to be diverted from her object by the customary amusements of youth or the gay frivolities of society. She held with Buffon that "genius is patience." And so far was she successful that, on coming to England in 1705, she met with liberal patronage, and in 1718 was elected one of the original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy. It should be added that she was by no means a painter and nothing else." I do not believe that it is possible to excel in any particular branch of art unless the mind of the artist has been cultivated "all round." Michael Angelo was a poet as well as a painter and sculptor, and Leonardo da Vinci a musician. And Angelina Kaufmann was a woman of many accomplishments, who wrote and spoke Italian, French, and English, as well as German.

A great female painter of our own day, Rosalie, or, as she is generally called, Rosa Bonheur, would doubtless ascribe her success to industry as well as to genius. Born at Bordeaux, on the 22d of March in 1822, the daughter of Raymond Bonheur, a French artist of some merit, she early displayed the artistic bent, and was instructed by her father in the elements of his profession. As soon as she had conquered the preliminary difficulties, she addressed herself to her work with courageous purpose and admirable firmness of will. Animal life specially engaged her attention, and to find subjects for study she did not scruple to visit the abattoirs of Paris. The cab-horses in the streets as well as the cattle in the neighbouring fields engaged her attention, and she suffered no opportunity to pass of observing their movements and habits. That she had contrived to penetrate the secrets of what we may call animal character, was seen in the first two pictures which (in 1841) she ventured to put before the public, "Chêvres et Moutons" and "Les Deux Lapins." Since that auspicious beginning her career has been one of uninterrupted success, and she has astonished the world with such masterpieces of insight and workmanship as "The Horse Fair" and the " Labourage Nivernais," "La Rencontre" and "Les Trois Mousquetaires." Her "Marche au Chevaux" was the cynosure of all visitors to the Paris Exhibition of 1853. In 1867 she won universal admiration by her "Berger Béarnais," "Razzia (Ecosse)," and "Moutons au Bord de la Mer." Her conscien

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