Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/270

Rh Miss Durgin to assume the duties and responsibilities of life on her own account, she chose teaching as a stepping-stone to the realization of her dream, an art education. Finally the way opened to enter upon her favorite field of study, and in 1880 she joined her sister Lyle in Paris. France, where she entered the studio of Mme. de Cool, and later that of Francois Rivoire, where daily lessons were taken. Having in company with her sister established a little home, she found many famous artists who were glad to visit the cosy salon and give careful and valuable criticism. After seven years of study Miss Durgin returned to Boston, where she had many friends, and in company with her sifter opened a studio in the most fashionable quarter of the city. Their rooms were soon frequented on reception days by admirers and lovers of art, and commissions have never been wanting to keep their brushes constantly employed. As a flower painter she stands among the foremost of American artists. A panel of tea-roses received special notice in the salon of 1886, and a group combining flowers and landscape in 1890 won much notice.

DURGIN, Miss Lyle, artist, was born in Wilmington. Mass., in 1850. A sister of Harriet Thayer Durgin, she grew up as one with her, so far

as environment and teaching were concerned. They drew the same life and inspiration from their home surroundings and studied in the same schools, and when their education was completed found themselves with the same inclination toward art. Lyle went to Paris in 1879 and became a pupil of Bonnat and Bastien Lepage. Later she entered the Julien Academy for more serious study in drawing, working enthusiastically, early and late, both in the school and in her own studio, supplementing her studio work by anatomical studies at the Ecole de Medicine under M. Chicotot. In summer time the sisters sketched in England. Switzerland and France, drawing fresh inspiration from nature and travel and taking home collections of sketches for their winter's work. Lyle chose figure painting in oil and portraiture as her special department of art. So earnestly did she study from 1879 to 1884 that the Salon received her paintings in the latter-named year, and again two years later, when she offered a painting of beauty, which won for her recognition, as an artist of power. In 1886 the Misses Durgin returned to America and opened a studio in Boston. Welcomed to the best society, in which they naturally found a home, the sisters began work, each in her own field of art. The first picture exhibited by Lyle in Boston was a portrait of a lady. Then followed in rapid succession one of Henry Sandham, a celebrated artist of Boston, and many others of persons of more or less distinction in the social and literary world. Receiving a commission for mural paintings for a church in Detroit, Mich., she started early in 1890 for a prolonged course of travel in Italy, finally settling in Paris for the execution of those great original works, which were completed and placed in the church in December, 1891. They represent the four Evangelists and are of heroic size, filling the four compartments of the dome-shaped interior. They are painted after the manner of the middle time of the Venetian school, corresponding to the Byzantine character of the edifice. Although the ecclesiastical traditions of saints and church fathers allow of but little variation, her works are characterized by freshness, originality and strength unusual to find at the present day, and are worthy of mow.- interest from the fact that this is a branch of painting which hitherto has been almost exclusively in the hands of nun.

DURLEY, Mrs. Ella Hamilton, educator and journalist, was born in Butler county, Pa. She is the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Hamilton. In the spring of 1866 the family removed to Davis county, Iowa, where, in the most unpromising backwoods region, they made their home for a few years. It was in the rude log school-house of that locality that the young girl acquired sufficient knowledge of the rudimentary branches to permit her to begin to teach at the age of sixteen. The loss of her father, whose ambition for his children was limitless, led her to make the attempt to carry out his oft-expressed wish that she should take a college course. To do so meant hard work and strenuous application, for every penny of the necessary expense had to be earned by herself. In the spring of 1878 she took the degree of B. A. in the State University of Iowa, and four years later she received the degree of M. A. After graduation Miss Hamilton accepted the principalship of the high school in Waterloo, Iowa, which she held for two years. She then went abroad to continue her studies, more especially in the German language and literature. She spent a year in European travel and study, features of which were the attendance upon a course of lectures in the Victoria Lyceum of Berlin, and an inspection of the school system of Germany and Italy. Upon her return the result of her observation was given to the public in the form of a lecture, which was widely delivered and well received. After a year spent in the Iowa State Library. Miss Hamilton decided to turn her attention to newspaper work. She became associate editor of the Des Moines "Mail and Times," which position she held over a year, when a tempting offer caused her to become editor-in-chief of the "Northwestern Journal of Education." where her success was very gratifying. Her later journalistic work has been in connection with the Des Moines "Daily News," upon which she served as reporter and editorial