Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/391

286 a painter distinguished for clever mannerism, but "to attain a definite end; one which is difficult to reach and requires widely applied effort."

Judging from what she has already done at her age, one may predict her success in her chosen method. In February, 1903, Miss Richards and her father exhibited their works in the Noe Galleries. I quote a few press opinions.

" Miss Richards paints the sea well; she infuses interest into her figures; she has a love of allegory; her studies in Holland and Norway are interesting. Her * Whitby,' lighted by sunset, with figures massed in the streets in dark relief against it, is beautiful. Her ' Friends,' showing two women watching the twilight fading from the summits of a mountain range, the cedared slopes and river valley below meantime gathering blueness and shadow, is of such strength and sweetness of fancy that it affects one like a strain of music."

" Miss Richards becomes symbolic or realistic by turn. Some of her figures are creatures of the imagination, winged and iridescent, like the ’Spirit of Hope.' Again, she paints good, honest Dutchmen, loafing about the docks. Sometimes she has recourse to poetry and quotes Emerson for a title.... If technically she is not always convincing, it is apparent that the artist is doing some thinking for herself, and her endeavors are in good taste."

Miss Richards has written " Letter and Spirit," containing fifty-seven "Dramatic Sonnets of Inward Life." These she has illustrated by sixty full-page pictures. Of