Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/247

168 Beatrice," "Joy to the Laborer," "An Italian Garden," "Where shall Wisdom be Found?" and the "Roadmenders," in Academy Exhibition, 1903.

The only work of Mrs. Hunter's that I have seen is the "Dante and Beatrice," Academy, 1900, and the impression I received leads me to think an article in the Studio, June, 1903, a just estimate of her work. It is by A. L. Baldry, who writes: "In the band of young artists who are at the present time building up sound reputations which promise to be permanent, places of much prominence must be assigned to Mr. J. Young Hunter and his wife. Though neither of them has been before the public for any considerable period, they have already, by a succession of notable works, earned the right to an amount of attention which, as a rule, can be claimed only by workers who have a large fund of experience to draw upon. But though they have been more than ordinarily successful in establishing themselves among the few contemporary painters whose performances are worth watching, they have not sprung suddenly into notice by some special achievement or by doing work so sensational that it would not fail to set people talking. There has been no spasmodic brilliancy in their progress, none of that strange alternation of masterly accomplishment and hesitating effort which is apt at times to mark the earlier stages of the life of an artist who may or may not attain greatness in his later years. They have gone forward steadily year by year, amplifying their methods and widening the range of their convictions; and there has been no moment since they made their first appeal to the public