Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/402

 Born in Madrid; a descendant of the Counts of Los Villares, and wife of the Count of Mirasol. Pupil of Cárlos Ribera.

Ronner, Mme. Henriette. Medals and honorable mentions and elections to academies have been showered on Mme. Ronner all over Europe. The King of Belgium decorated her with the Cross of the Order of Leopold. Born in Amsterdam in 1821. The grandfather of this artist was Nicolas Frederick Knip, a flower painter; her father, Josephus Augustus Knip, a landscape painter, went blind, and after this misfortune was the teacher of his daughter; her aunt, for whom she was named, received medals in Paris and Amsterdam for her flower pictures. What could Henriette Knip do except paint pictures ? Hers was a clear case of predestination! At all events, almost from babyhood she occupied herself with her pencil, and when she was twelve years old her blind father began to teach her. Even at six years of age it was plainly seen that she would be a painter of animals. When sixteen she exhibited a "Cat in a Window," and from that time was considered a reputable artist.

In 1850 she was married and settled in Brussels. From this time for fifteen years she painted dogs almost without exception. Her picture called " Friend of Man " was exhibited in i860. It is her most famous work and represents an old sand-seller, whose dog, still harnessed to the little sand-wagon, is dying, while two other dogs are looking on with well-defined sympathy. It is a most pathetic scene, wonderfully rendered.