Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-12-27
Women Painters of Paris.

"VhACA IdluleIS VI FdIlS.
One of the features of the autumn sa-
Ion IN Paris was the exhibition in room
by themselves of 100 pictures bN Nine.
Berthe Morizot sister-in-law of Edouard
Manet. The display consisted of corners
Of gardens and orchards, stretches of
Norman coast, and portraits of women
ana girls done in pearly grays lit up with
faint tinges of carmine.
1t was the first time that a woman
mad held the honor of a Retrospective"
IN Paris. 1t was regarded as showing
the place that women have achieved in
little more than a century in the history
OF art. This year it is Just a century
since the death of Angelica Kaufman,
the first woman painter to achieve great
reputation.
At the time of her death Nine. Yigee-
Lebrun was painting the portraits that
nave made her known all over the world.
Then came long interval until the rise
OF Rosa Bonheur in the '60c But the
latter half of the Nineteenth century
saw great change.
Women took up painting and even
sculpture In great numbers. Those VINO
devote their lives to art are becoming
more numerous every year and at pres
ent there are five women who have been
decorated with the Legion of Honor.
Rosa Bonheur, the great animal paint
err was the first woman artist to ENJOY
that distinction The Empress Eugene
urged that it be conferred on her when
she and Napoleon III. visited the painter
IN the chateau at By. Napoleon re-
fused to grant it. The Empress bided
her time. The next year, 1865, the EN-
peror made trip to Algeria, leaving the
Empress regent. She made hurried
trip to By and conferred the honor she
desired
Rosa Bonheur was distinctly not
feminine, but her success stimulated the
movement Of women toward artistic
work. She received $4,000 for her Horse
Fair" the earliest of her works and
she left a fortune of several million
francs.
The FIVE women who are decorated
with the Legion of Honor today are
Nine. Madeleine Lemaire, who is de-
seribed as the Rosa Bonheur of Flowers;
Nine. Louise Abbema, Nine. Nirglnle
Demont-Breton, painter of marine
pieces: Miss Mary CasSett, an American
girl domiciled in France who is ia
nous for the pictures of child life, and
Nile. Dufan, painter of scenes and IN
cdents in the Basque provinces.
Young women are now admitted TO the
regular classes of the Ecole des Beaux
Arts. They are placed exactly on the
same plane with the male students. They
paint together from the same models
anu are IN competition lof tne SiS"t
prizes, including the Prix de Rome, but
no woman has as yet captured any of
The honors Of the school. There are also
special courses for women in other pub
nc institutions.
Every years more than 200 women
nave pictures hung in the SAXON e1nlDl-
uons. There are besides two annual ex-
hloitlons exclusively for women.
At one of these, the Societe des Fem
mes Artistes, the number of exhibitors is
limited to forty zach year. The other is
the Union des Femmes Peintres ct Sculp-
Jenrs; its catalogue contains more than
AVu0 numbers in each exhibition.
Beauty at Zenith at Forty.
There is a beauty quite apart from
Eouth-the beauty Of the mature woman
Some there are that maintain that
beauty does not reach its zenith under
me age Of thirty-fve or forty. In
measure this is borne ont BY the events
O the antique past which may likewise
se parralleled with instances Of our OWL
DAY. Helen Of Troy appeared on the
scene at the age Of forty. Cleopatra was