Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/322

Rh certain element of soft tenderness in her pictures, the bold virility of her drawing misled the critics, who for a time believed that her name was used to conceal the personality of a man. A critic in the Paris World writes of this artist: "She has exquisite color sense and delights in presenting that exaltation de la vie, that love, radiance, and joy of life, which are at once the secret of the success and the keynote of the masterful canvases of Roll, in whose studio were first developed Claude Marlefs delicate qualities of truthful perception in the portraiture of woman, . . . Her perceptions being rapid, she has a remarkable instantaneous insight, enabling her to fix the dominant feature and soul of expression in each of the various types among her numerous sitters."

Mme. Marlefs family name is Lefebure. Her husband died in 1891, the year after their marriage, and she then devoted herself to the serious study of painting, which she had practised from childhood. She first exhibited at the Salon, 1895, and has exhibited annually since then. In 1903 she sent her own portrait, and in 1903 that of Bessie Abbott, to the Exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Martin de Campo, Victoria. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Cadiz, her native city. In the different expositions of this and other Andalusian capitals she has exhibited since 1840 many works, including portraits, genre, historical pictures, and copies. Among them may be mentioned "Susanna in the Bath," "David Playing the Harp before Saul," a "Magdalen," a "Cupki," a "Boy with a Linnet," and a "Nativity." Some of these were