Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/254

Rh At the Salon of 1902 Mile Itasse exhibited a "Madonna"; in 1903, a portrait of M, W.

Mile. Itasse knows her art thoroughly. When still a child, at the age when little girls play with dolls, she was in her father's atelier, working in clay with an irresistible fondness for this occupation, and without relaxation making one little object after another, until she acquired that admirable surety of execution that one admires in her work—a quality sometimes lacking in the work of both men and women sculptors.

Since her début at the Salon of 1886 she has annually exhibited important works. In 1887 her bust of the danseuse, Marie Salles, was purchased by the Government for the Opera; in 1888 she exhibited a plaster statue, the "Young Scholar," and the following year the bust of her father; in 1890 a "St. Sebastian" in high relief; in 1891 an "Egyptian Harpist," which gained her a traveller's purse and an invitation from the Viceroy of Egypt; in 1893 a Renaissance bas-relief; in 1894 the superb funeral monument dedicated to her father; in 1896 she exhibited, in plaster, the "Bacchante," which in marble was a brilliant success and gained for her a second-class medal and the palmes académique, while the statue was acquired by the Government. Mile. Itasse has also gained official recompenses in provincial exhibitions and has richly won the right to esteem herself mistress of her art.

Jacquemart, Mile. Nélie. Medals at Paris Salon, 1868, 1869, and 1870. Born in Paris. A very successful portrait painter. Among the portraits she has exhibited at the Paris Salon are those of Marshal Canrobert, Gen-