Page:Women Artists in All Ages and Countries original scans.djvu/320

312 WOMEN ARTISTS.

washing beside a stream; the children are gathering strawberries.

HERMINIE DASSEL.

Mrs. Dassel was a native of Konigsberg, Prussia. Her father’s name was Borchard; he was a banker, and at one time a man of fortune, which enabled him to secure to his children an excellent education. He lost his property in 1839, in consequence of financial troubles in America; the liquidation of his affairs re- duced his possessions to a small farm, depriving his family of teachers, servants, horses and carriages, and all the comforts which they had enjoyed. Upon the elder children devolved the duties of housekeeping, and the cultivation of the farm to some extent, as well as the instruction of the younger members of the fam- ily. At this time Herminie devoted herself to the art of painting as a profession, hoping to derive from it a support for herself and family. She would attend to her household duties in the morning, and then, with port-folio in hand, wander off over the dusty or muddy road to the city, and again return to attend to the flowers and cabbages, and the making of cheese and butter. She soon had the satisfaction of receiving a commission for a full-sized portrait of a clergyman; this she painted in the church, with her model on the altar, the country folk standing about, astonished and wondering that such a tiny little girl could accomplish such a marvel. a

She soon went to Diisseldorf, attracted thither by the pictures of Sohn, which she saw in an exhibition in her native city. She studied with this artist four years, supporting herself entirely by her own exer- tions. Her pictures found ready sale, consisting of.