Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/356

Rh A picture of "Raphael and the Fomarina," which she executed at the age of fifteen, was so satisfactory as to determine her fate, and she was allowed to study art.

When about eighteen years old she became the pupil of Charles Joseph Begas, a very celebrated artist of Berlin. Under his supervision she painted her first picture, called the "Day of the Dupes," which, though full of faults, had also virtues enough to secure much attention in the exhibition. It was first hung in a disadvantageous position, but th6 crowd discovered its merits and would have it noticed. She received a complimentary letter from the Academy of Berlin, and the venerable artist Cornelius made her a visit of congratulation.

About 1844 she married and removed to Brussels. Here she came into an entirely new atmosphere and her manner of painting was changed. She sought to free herself from all outer influence and to express her own feeling. She studied color especially, and became an imitator of Rubens. She gained in Brussels all the medals of the Belgian expositions, and there began two historical pictures, "Peter the Great and Catherine" and "Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great." These were not finished until after her removal to Paris in 1853. They were bought by Prince Demidoff for the Russian Government.

She obtained her first triumph in Paris, at the Salon of 1895, by a portrait of Rachel. She represented the famous actress dressed entirely in white, with the worn expression which her professional exertions and the fatal malady from which she was already suffering had given to her remarkable face. The critics had no words for this por-