After Neher's designs, she modelled reliefs for the bronze doors at the castle of Weimar.
<b>FARNCOMB, CAROLINE.</b> Several first prizes in exhibitions in London, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. Member of Women's Art Club, London, Ontario. Born near Toronto, Canada. Pupil of Mr. Judson and Mlle. van den Broeck in London, Canada, and later of William Chase in New York. Now studying in Paris.
<b>FASSETT, CORNELIA ADÈLE.</b> 1831-1898. Member of the Chicago Academy of Design and the Washington Art Club. Born in Owasco, New York. Studied water-color painting in New York under an English artist, J. B. Wandesforde. Pupil in Paris of Castiglione, La Tour, and Mathieu. Her artistic life was spent in Chicago and Washington, D. C.
She painted numerous portraits in miniature and a large number in oils. Among those painted from life were Presidents Grant, Hayes, and Garfield; Vice-President Henry Wilson; Charles Foster, when Governor of Ohio, now in the State House at Columbus, Ohio; Dr. Rankin, president of Howard University, Washington; and many other prominent people of Chicago and Washington.
Her chief work and that by which she is best remembered hangs in the Senate wing of the United States Capitol. No picture in the Capitol attracts more attention, and large numbers of people view it daily. It is the "Electoral Commission in Open Session." It represents the old Senate Chamber, now the Supreme Court Room, with William M. Evarts making the opening argument. There are two hundred and fifty-eight portraits of notable men and women, prominent in political, literary, scientific, and social circles. Many of these were painted from life.
The _Arcadian_, New York, December 15, 1876, in speaking of this picture, says: "Mr. Evarts is addressing the court, and the large number of people present are naturally and easily grouped. There is no stiffness nor awkwardness in the positions, nothing forced in the whole work. There are, in the crowd, ladies in bright colors to relieve the sombreness of the black-coated men, and the effect of the whole picture is pleasing and artistic, aside from its great value as an historical work."
The _Washington Capital_, March 17, 1878: "Mrs. Fassett's 'Electoral Commission' gives evidence of great merit, and this illustration in oil of an historical event in the presidential annals of the country, by the preservation of the likenesses in groups of some of the principal actors, and a few leading correspondents of the press, will be valuable. This picture we safely predict will be a landmark in the history of the nation that will never be erased. It memorizes a most remarkable crisis in our life, and perpetuates, both by reason of its intrinsic value as a chapter of history and its intrinsic worth as an art production, the incident it represents and the name of the artist."