The second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century produced a surprising abundance of women artists, some of whom gained the most coveted prizes and medals offered by the great annual exhibitions in Paris, London, Berlin, Munich and other centers of art. Clara Erskine Clemens in her book “Women in the Fine Arts” has compiled notes about several hundred of them, without enumerating them all. To mention a few of the most excellent, we name of the German artists =Louise Parmentier Begas=, =Tina Blau=, =Dora Hitz=, =Lucia von Gelder=, =Herminie von Janda=, =Countess Marie Kalckreuth=, =Minna Stock=, =Toni Stadler=, =Frieda Ritter=, =Margarethe von Schack=, =Vilma Parlaghy=, and =Margarethe Waldau=.
Italy names among its best modern painters =Alceste Campriani=, =Ada Negri=, =Juana Romani=, =Erminia de Sanctis=, and =Clelia Bompiani=.
The French extol the genius of =Louise Labé=, =Marceline Desbordes-Valmore= and =Louise Ackermann=.
Belgium and Holland number among their women artists =Therese Schwartze=, =Adele Kindt= and =Henriette Ronner=; Spain points with pride to the works of =Fernanda Frances y Arribas=, =Adele Gines= and =Antonia de Banuelos=. Denmark’s famous artist, =Elizabet Jerichau Baumann=, is remembered especially for her magnificent painting “Christian Martyrs in the Catacombs”; Switzerland has two portraitists of the first order, =Louise Catherine Breslau= and =Aimée Rapin=, while Russia produced in =Marie Bashkirttseff= an artist of rare ability.
Perhaps in no other country is the number of female artists so large as in England. We will name only a few of them. =Laura Alma Tadema= was the gifted daughter of the famous artist Laurenz Alma Tadema. =Margaret Sarah Carpenter= won wide reputation as a gifted portrait painter. =Ethel Wright’s= beautiful painting “The Song of the Ages” belongs to the best examples of English art. =Clara Montalba= is favorably known for her splendid scenes of Venice, and landscapes of the Adriatic coasts. =Elizabeth Thompson= demonstrated by many excellent sketches and pictures that women are not afraid to make a specialty of battle scenes.
Ambitious American women are likewise hard at work gaining honor and laurels in the various fields of art. The morning promises fair, as there are already many shining names upon the scroll. To begin with one of the middle of the last century, we mention =Cornelia Adele Facett=, whose chief work, “The Election Commission in Open Session,” contains 258 portraits of men and women, prominent in the political, literary, scientific and social circles of their time. It adorns the Senate Chamber in the Capitol at Washington.