Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/218

Rh ing the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." Also portrait statues and busts belonging to private collections.

At the Salon des Artistes Français, 1902, Mme. Girardet exhibited the "Grandmother's Blessing" and "L'Enfant Malade." At the same Salon, 1903, the two groups illustrating the Lord's Prayer.

A writer, G. M., in the Studio of December, 1902, writes: "Prominent among the women artists of the day whose talents are attracting attention is Mme. Berthe Girardet. She has a very delicate and very tender vision of things, which stamps her work with genuine originality. She does not seek her subjects far from the life around her; quite the reverse; and therein lies the charm of her sculpture—a great, sincere, and simple charm, which at once arouses one's emotion. What, for instance, could be more poignantly sad than this ’Enfant Malade’ group, with the father, racked with anxiety, bending over the pillow of his fragile little son, and the mother, already in an attitude of despair, at the foot of the bed? The whole thing is great in its profound humanity.

"The ’Bénédiction de l’Areule' is less tragic. Behind the granddaughter, delightful in her white veil and dress of a première communicante, stands the old woman, her wrinkled face full of quiet joy. She is thinking of the past, moved by the melancholy of the bells, and she is happy with a happiness with which is mingled something of sorrow and regret. It is really exquisite. By simple means Mme. Berthe Girardet obtains broad emotional effects. She won a great and legitimate success at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français."