Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/447

336 governor of Rhode Island; and Judge Austin Adams, late of the Supreme Court of Iowa.

Thurwanger, Felicité Chastanier. This remarkable artist, not long since, when eighty-four years old, sent to the exhibition at Nice—which is, in a sense, a branch of the Paris Salon—three portraits which she had just finished. "They were hung in the place of honor and unanimously voted to belong to the first class."

Mme. Thurwanger was the pupil of Delacroix during five years. The master unconsciously did his pupil an injury by saying to her father: "That daughter of yours is wonderfully gifted, and if she were a man I would make a great artist of her." Hearing this, the young artist burst into tears, and her whole career was clouded by the thought that her sex prevented her being a really great artist, and induced in her an abnormal modesty. This occurred about forty-five years ago; since then we have signally changed all that! Delacroix, who was an enthusiast in color, was the leader of one school of his time, and was opposed by Ingres, who was so wanting in this regard that he was accused of being color-blind.

Mme. Thurwanger had a curious experience with these artists. When but seventeen she was commissioned by the Government to copy a picture in the Louvre. One morning, when she was working in the Gallery, Ingres passed by and stopped to look at her picture. He examined it carefully, and with an expression of satisfaction said: "I am so very glad to see that you have the true idea of art ! Remember always that there is no color in