While in the Netherlands, under the influence of the national elevation, art grew into a school of peculiar nationality, much less favorable circumstances existed in Germany. It may be said, indeed, that none less favorable could be found in any country. It was not merely that the land had been wasted by the Thirty Years’ War, for art and knowledge have been known to bud and bloom amid a severe national struggle. This contest, however, was one hostile to every generous impulse and lofty aspiration, and tended to crush the noble energies that are called forth in other conflicts. It was an internecine and sordid strife; Germans were arrayed against Germans, and hordes of foreign robbers were encouraged to plunder the country desolated by her own children. In the reign of mean and base passions, there was no soil where such flowers might bloom as then made beautiful the Netherlands.

There was wanting, also, such a central point as was afforded in France and Spain by the courts of Versailles and Madrid. All things revolved in a narrow and sordid sphere of individual interest. That Germany, in spite of this disastrous and gloomy condition, should have produced artists, and that even women, with self-sacrificing zeal should have manifested their predilection for the calling, is a proof of the deep love for art implanted in the heart of the nation, showing itself in brilliant flashes during the sixteenth century, and in the midst of troubles not entirely extinguished. The Reformation, while it had inspired Germany with the spirit of a new epoch, at first assumed a position hostile to the arts that had contributed to embellish the old faith. For three hundred years, by open force, blind fury, and cold contempt, this misapprehension of the true scope of art threatened to destroy what preceding ages had left of excellence; nor did the struggle terminate till the nineteenth century.

Signs of life in art had been first perceived in Germany toward the beginning of the thirteenth century; and there had been progressive stages of improvement. The stiffness and seriousness prescribed by tradition were replaced by softer execution and an easier flow of outline. Flowing drapery and grace marked the earliest attempts to express the artist’s own feelings in his works, and a subjective principle was allowed in paintings.

In the revival of art toward the end of the fifteenth century the sacred subjects of earlier ages had been much chosen. Afterward, the artist’s own mind and emotions came forth in self-productive energy; and, at a later period, rose into favor the accurate delineations of nature’s forms.

The inferiority of Germany in an artistic view, in the seventeenth century, is undeniable; but many were found who longed after the excellence of which other lands could boast. Women there were in abundance who cultivated ornamental literature; noble ladies and princesses patronized poets and courted the muses. Henrietta of Orange, the consort of the great Elector, was one of several royal dames yet remembered in their sacred songs. The lower orders could boast their cultivated women; and the name of Maria Cunitz deserves mention as learned in the science of astronomy.

The fame of Anna Memorata, Fulvia Morata, and Anna Maria Schurmann meanwhile filled the German women with emulative desire to inscribe their names beside those accomplished persons. Gertrude Möller was learned in the languages, and Sibylla Schwarz in poetry. Even Rist, who excluded women from his literary society, corresponded with the poetess Maria Commer.

This was the beginning of honorary poetic orders, and women were not excluded from these, especially from those established by Zesen. He was the patron and encourager of female genius and enterprise; his pen was dedicated to the service of the sex, and his praises were reciprocated by the grateful fair. In his “Lustinne” he sings of the lady poets of his day.

The female artists of that time seemed, indeed, to lack such generous appreciation; and it may be that the enthusiastic eulogies lavished by poets on each other had a selfish aim. Yet the period was not without a goodly number of women who cultivated art, and it is not improbable that the success of the poetesses had some effect in stimulating their zeal. The example of the illustrious Schurmann, who wore the double wreath of both branches of study, was before their eyes; and the Dutch school had much influence in forming tastes in Germany.

The love of exercising creative power naturally developed itself in various ways. Nuremberg, the seat of the Pegnitzschäfer order of bards; Hamburg, the residence of the chivalrous Zesen; Saxony, where flourished many fair devotees to literature—were not abandoned by the spirit of art. In the first-mentioned city we hear of two paintresses descended from families celebrated for artistic excellence: Susannah Maria von Sandrart, who also did etching in copper; and Esther Juvenel, who drew plans for architecture. To these may be added the name of Barbara Helena Lange, who earned celebrity by engraving on copper, and carving figures in ivory and alabaster. She was admitted to the Pegnitz order, on account of her poetical talent, in 1679, her poetical name being entered as Erone. In 1686 she married one Kopsch, and with him removed to Berlin, and afterward to Amsterdam.

The names of Maria Clara Eimart and Magdalena Fürst may here be mentioned as flower-painters; that of Helen Preisler as an engraver on copper; and Joanna Sabina Preu as both an engraver and modeler in wax. All these obtained no insignificant reputation.

In Nuremberg also lived, in 1684, Anna Maria Pfründt, born in Lyons. She modeled portraits in wax, some of which were those of persons of high rank, and, adorned with costly drapery and precious stones, gained a wide-spread reputation for the artist.

Augsburgh was also rich in evidences of woman’s artistic taste. Susannah Fischer and Johanna Sibylla Küsel excelled in painting, while her younger sisters, Christina and Magdalena Küsel, with Maria Wieslatin, engraved in copper. Others surpassed the Nurembergers in fine carving.

In Regensburgh lived Anna Catharina Fischer, a flower and portrait painter; in Munich, Isabella del Pozzo was appointed court painter by the Electress Adelaide, and the miniature-painter Maria Rieger was employed very frequently by princely personages. Placida Lamme distinguished herself about the same time by painting miniatures and carving pictures, with which she occupied her time in the Bavarian cloister of Hohenwart.

In Hamburg, Mariana Van der Stoop and Diana Glauber were painters by profession, and in Saxony we find a skillful portrait-painter in Margaretta Rastrum, who pursued her art in Leipzig. The above-mentioned Anna Catharina Fischer lived a long time in Halle, with her husband, a painter named Block. Toward the end of this century we hear of Madame Ravemann, who executed a beautiful medal—an exquisite specimen of cutting—for Augustus the Second.

THE PRINCESS HOLLANDINA.

Casting a glance over western Germany, we find the artistic poverty of the land redeemed by a princess who loved the liberal arts—Louise Hollandina, of the Pfalz. She was the daughter of the unhappy Friedrich V., and the sister of the Princess Elizabeth, whose chief celebrity arose from her veneration for the philosopher Descartes; also of the Prince Ruprecht, noted in art history for his drawings and his leaves in the black art. Hollandina, with her sister Sophia, received instruction in painting from the famous Gerard Honthorst, and painted large historical pictures in the style of that master, of which at the present time very little is known. Two of Hollandina’s paintings were added to the collection of her uncle, King Charles—one representing Tobias and the Angel; the other, a falconer. An altar-piece by her hand adorns a church in Paris. Lovelace, in his poetry, speaks highly of the abilities of this princess.

Her family originated from the same place that gave birth to Anna Maria Schurmann—the city of Cologne—where that famed artist obtained her early education.

We must not omit to mention Frankfort-on-the-Main, where, in the middle of the seventeenth century, lived one of the most celebrated women of whom Germany then could boast. This was

MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN.

She was the daughter of Matthew Merian, the well-known geographer and engraver, and born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1647. Her father published a topographical work in Germany, in thirty-one folio volumes. Her mother was the daughter of Theodore de Bry, an engraver of repute.

A remarkable circumstance, and one contrary to the usual experience of extraordinary persons, was, that Sibylla devoted herself to the vocation of the artist in opposition to her mother’s wishes and in the face of great difficulties. In this respect she differed from most other women artists; for they, as a rule, were led to the study by parental example or domestic training.

From the early childhood of this singular girl she manifested a persevering spirit of research in natural history, with a fondness for examining specimens of vegetable and animal life. It is possible that this natural predilection was owing to one of those accidents that so often determine the course and bent of human intellect. Her mother, shortly before her birth, it is said, took a fancy to make a collection of curious stones, mussels, and different sorts of caterpillars. However this may be, it is certain that the child, at a very early age, showed the same taste, and no maternal reproaches or punishment could keep her from indulging the strange fancy. She would, however, conceal her treasures. At last her step-father, the painter Jacob Marrel, having persuaded the mother to consent, arranged it so that the girl took lessons of the famous flower-painter, Abraham Mignon.

In the year 1665, at eighteen, she married John Andrew Graf, a painter and designer in architecture. The marriage was not a happy one, but she lived with Graf nearly twenty years in Nuremberg, in a lonely and secluded manner, devoted solely to her art, as she herself says in the preface to one of her published works, giving up intercourse with society, and beguiling her time by the examination of the various species of insects, of which she made drawings, and by the study of their transformations.

She painted her specimens first on parchment, and many of those pictures were distributed among amateurs. Encouraged by them, she published, in 1679, a work entitled “The Wonderful Transformations of Caterpillars,” a quarto volume, with copper engravings, executed by herself after her own drawings. Another volume appeared in 1684.

The affairs of Graf having become embarrassed, and his conduct being much censured, he was compelled to leave his family and go out of the country. After this separation, Sibylla never assumed her husband’s name in any of her publications, but issued them under her maiden name. About 1684 she went to Frankfort, and prepared for a journey to West Friesland with her mother and daughters. There she became possessed with the religious enthusiasm which had driven so many women into strange doings, and joined the sect of the Labadists, taking up her abode at the Castle Bosch.

Sibylla did not yield her energies, however, entirely to the dominion of this kind of phrensy; her old habits of study and research followed her. Butterflies and worms again occupied her attention, and she soon took a deep interest in all the collections of animals from the East and West Indies which she discovered were within her reach.

Among those persons whose collections were most admired by her was Fridericus Ruysch, a doctor of medicine and professor of botany, and the father of the Rachel Ruysch already noticed. It is not difficult to believe that the example and conversation of a woman so gifted and so devoted to study as Madame Merian had a decisive influence upon the character of the youthful Rachel.

Our heroic and industrious heroine was delighted at the opportunity of examining such interesting collections; for, besides the pleasure her investigations in natural history afforded her, she was stimulated by an inextinguishable desire to know all that could be learned about that department of the animal kingdom. At length, anxious to see the metamorphoses and food of American insects, she determined to undertake that laborious and expensive journey to Surinam which she accomplished in June, 1699. The States of Holland assisted her with the means of travel. Her journey gave occasion to the following lines by a French poet:

“Sibylla à Surinam va chercher la nature,
Avec l’esprit d’un Sage, et le cœur d’un Heros.”

The place of her destination was Dutch Guiana, often called Surinam, from a river of that name, on which the capital, Paramaribo, is situated. It is said that, one day during her residence there, the Indians brought Madame Merian a number of living lantern-flies, which she put into a box; but they made so much noise at night, that she rose from her bed and opened their prison. The multitude of fiery flames issuing from the box so terrified her that she immediately dropped it on the ground. Hence came marvelous stories of the strong light emitted by that insect.

She remained in America nearly two years, till the summer of 1701, notwithstanding the unfavorable effect of the climate on her health, and the difficulties thus encountered in the prosecution of her studies. Though strong of will, she could not long bear up against such an enemy, and was obliged to return much sooner than suited her inclinations.

In September she was again in Holland, where her splendid paintings, on parchment, of American insects, excited the greatest admiration among the connoisseurs. They pressed her to publish a work that would open a world of vegetables and animals hitherto unknown; and, in spite of the great expense, she resolved at last, without expectation of a return for her outlay, to engrave her pictures for publication. The reward of her labors was to be in the sale of successive editions. This work was entitled “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, etc. The text drawn up by Gaspar Commelin, from the MSS. of the author.”

In 1771 a collection of Madame Merian’s works was published in Paris, translated into French; and to this day are to be seen engravings, nearly of the size of the original, of the various paintings made by this enthusiastic woman of objects that struck her fancy—caterpillars, butterflies, spiders, snakes, and various kinds of animals and plants—executed with all the luxury of brilliant coloring, and illustrated by choice poetry.

Her great work was entitled “History of the Insects of Europe, drawn from Nature, and explained, by Maria Sibylla Merian.” It included a treatise on the generation and metamorphoses of insects, and the plants on which they feed. Her pictures were not only executed with fidelity, but each insect appeared in its first state with the most pleasing accompaniments. With those metamorphosed from the chrysalis or nymph to the fly or butterfly, were presented the plants and flowers they loved, all correctly and tastefully delineated.

Even after the appearance of her work, in 1705, the persevering artist continued her studies in natural history, in which she was joined by both her daughters, whom she had educated to pursuits of art. Dorothea, the youngest, had accompanied her to Surinam, while the eldest, Joanna Maria Helena, came afterward with her husband, a merchant of Amsterdam, to assist her mother in collecting and painting specimens. It was the mother’s intention to publish the pictures made by her daughters in an appendix to her own collected works; but her death, which occurred in January, 1717, prevented this, and the daughters afterward published the results of their labors in a separate volume.

This extraordinary woman, whose labors contributed so much to the improvement and embellishment of the natural history of insects, was little favored by gifts of beauty or personal grace. Her portrait shows hard and heavy-lined features. A curious headdress, made of folds of black stuff, rises high above the head, and inclines a little to the left. Short, light curls appear above a cambric ruffle, finishing a half-low corsage. She is undoubtedly entitled to a place among great artists.

The history of Madame Merian rounds off that of German female artists belonging to the seventeenth century with an exhibition of more than ordinary interest.

THE DANISH WOMEN ARTISTS.

A glimpse may here be had of the artists of Denmark and England. Anna Crabbe was a painter by profession in Copenhagen before the year 1618. She painted a series of portraits of Danish princes, to which she added a poetical description of each. The daughter of King Christian IV., Eleonora Christina, who married the minister Ulefeld, was not only celebrated for her beauty and intellectual gifts, but for skill in various branches of art—engraving, modeling in wax, and miniature-painting. Her daughter Helena Christina possessed like talents.

Toward the close of the century, Sophie Hedwig, the daughter of King Christian V., became noted as an artist, gaining much reputation by her performances in portrait, landscape, and flower painting.

Neither in Denmark nor in England was any special direction given to art by the national character; on the contrary, in both these countries, the prevailing taste was governed by that of foreign nations—as the Dutch and German.

ENGLISH FEMALE ARTISTS.

In England there were not many women artists, although in literature the sex was not without its share of laurels, and in dramatic poetry and prose romance women contended for appreciation with masculine writers. The poetess Joanna Weston was a great admirer of Anna Maria Schurmann, and took her for a model; but there were no painters who could be compared in merit to the women who cultivated poetry.

As miniature-painters, Susannah Penelope Gibson may be mentioned; also Penelope Cleyn. The latter was the daughter of a German painter, and her sisters Magdalen and Sarah were also devoted to the art. They painted the portrait of Richard Cromwell’s daughter.

Mary More obtained some distinction as a portrait-painter. It was in England that the Princess Hollandina, before mentioned, took lessons in painting, with her sister Sophie, from Gerard Honthorst.

In the noble art of etching Anna and Susannah Lister were regarded as having much skill; they illustrated a work on natural history by their father, in the manner of Madame Merian, by their artistic efforts.

A lady connoisseur and engraver of much taste was the Countess of Carlisle. She perhaps set the fashion afterward followed by so many fair dilettanti, who exercised so much influence in England during the succeeding century.

Susan Penelope Rose, according to Lord Orford, was the daughter of Richard Gibson the Dwarf. She married a jeweler, and became noted for painting portraits in water colors with great freedom. Her miniatures were larger than usual. She died at forty-eight in 1700.

A contemporary of Vandyck was Mrs. Anna Carlisle, who died about 1680. She was celebrated for her copies of the Italian masters. Charles I. esteemed her highly. She once shared with Vandyck a present from their royal patron, of ultramarine; it is said to have cost the king five hundred pounds. This renders it probable that she painted in oil; for the quantity was too large for use in miniatures.

One of her works represents herself teaching a lady to paint. This artist must not be confounded with the Countess of Carlisle, who was distinguished for her beautiful engravings of the works of Salvator Rosa, Guido, etc.

MARY BEALE,

the daughter of Mr. Craddock, a clergyman, was born at Suffolk about 1632. She received some instruction from Walker, but was a favorite pupil of Sir Peter Lely. She painted in oil, water-colors, and crayons. She acquired much of the Italian style by copying old pictures from Lely’s and the royal collection. She copied some of the portraits of Vandyck. Her works were remarkable for vigor of drawing and fresh coloring, with great purity and sweetness. The artist was an estimable and amiable woman; was highly respected, and mingled in the society of the noble and the learned. Her pencil was employed by many personages of distinction. Her husband was an inferior painter.

It was rumored that Sir Peter Lely was romantically attached to his fair pupil; but his love could not have met with return, for he is known to have been reserved in communicating to her the resources of his pencil. He refused to intrust to her one of the important secrets of his art.

Several poems in praise of Mrs. Beale were published; one in particular is remembered, by Dr. Woodfall, in which she is celebrated under the name of “Belasia.” Her husband, Charles Beale, had the curious practice of noting in small almanac pocket-books almost daily accounts of whatever related to his wife, her pictures, or himself. He practiced chemistry for the preparation of colors. He bequeathed thirty of the almanacs, filled with his notes, and records of the praises lavished on his wife’s pictures, to a colorman named Carter.

Walpole says Mrs. Beale’s portraits were numerous. She painted one of Otway, the poet. The Archbishop Tillotson was her patron, and many of the clergy sat to her. The archbishop’s portrait is the first of an ecclesiastic who, quitting the coif of silk, is delineated in a brown wig.

Some have said that she persuaded her friends to sit to Lely, that she might learn his method of coloring. There is no doubt that she rose to the first rank in her profession. One of her sons became a painter. She died at Pall Mall in 1697, aged sixty-five.

ANNE KILLEGREW—

“A grace for beauty, and a muse for wit,” as writes one of her admirers—was the daughter of Henry Killegrew, descended of a family remarkable for loyalty, accomplishments, and talent. She proved one of its brightest ornaments. She was born in London, and at a very early age discovered a remarkable genius. She became celebrated both in painting and poetry. One of her portraits was of the Duke of York, afterward James II.; others, of Mary of Modena and the Duchess of York, to whom she was maid of honor. These pieces were highly praised by Dryden. She produced, also, several history-pieces, and pictures of still life. Becket did her miniature in mezzotint, after her own painting; it was prefixed to the published edition of her poems. The painting was in the style of Sir Peter Lely, which she imitated with great success. Her portrait, taken by Lely, has a pleasing expression, though the air is slightly prim. The dress is low-necked, with beads, and a mantle is fastened at the breast with a brooch. Curls cluster round the face; the back hair is loose and flowing.

Though called “mistress,” after the fashion of the time, Anne was never married. She was a woman of unblemished character and exemplary piety. Death cut short her promising career, by small-pox, in 1685—as Wood says, “to the unspeakable reluctancy of her relations”—when she was but twenty-five years of age. She was buried in Savoy Chapel, where a monument is fixed in the wall, bearing a Latin inscription by her father, setting forth her accomplishments, virtue, and piety.

Dryden’s ode to her memory was called by Dr. Johnson “the noblest our language has produced.” Another critic terms it “a harmonious hyperbole, composed of the fall of Adam, Arethusa, Vestal virgins, Diana, Cupid, Noah’s ark, the Pleiades, the fall of Jehoshaphat, and the last assizes.” After lauding her poetic excellence, Dryden says:

“Her pencil drew whate’er her soul designed;
And oft the happy draft surpassed the image of her mind.”

And of her portrait of James II.:

“For, not content to express his outward part,
Her hand called out the image of his heart;
His warlike mind—his soul devoid of fear—
His high-designing thoughts were figured there.”

Notwithstanding such flattery, Anthony Wood says, “There is nothing spoken of her which she was not equal to, if not superior;” and adds, “If there had not been more true history in her praises than compliment, her father never would have suffered them to pass the press.”

Her poems appeared after her death in a thin quarto volume, prefaced by the ode and the Latin epitaph. Among her history-pieces were “St. John in the Wilderness,” “Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist,” and “Two of Diana’s Nymphs.” The melodious eulogizer of her graces and gifts remarks of the queen’s portrait:

“Our phœnix queen was portrayed too, so bright,
Beauty alone could beauty take so right;
Before, a train of heroines was seen,
In beauty foremost, as in rank a queen.”

THE ARTIST IN SILK.

Mademoiselle Rosée, born in Leyden in 1632, deserves a place among eminent artists for the singularity of her talents. Instead of using colors, with oil or gum, she used silk for the delicate shading. It can hardly be understood how she managed to apply the fibres, and to imitate the flesh-tints, blending and mellowing them so admirably. She thus painted portraits, as well as landscapes and architecture. Michel Carré, who saw one of her portraits, says, “It can scarcely be believed it is not done by the pencil.” One of her pieces brought five hundred florins. It represented the decayed trunk of a tree, covered with moss and leaves. On the top a bird has made her nest. The shading and the sky in the distance left nothing to be desired for coloring and truthful effect. The Grand-Duke of Tuscany purchased one of her finest pieces, which is yet preserved among the curiosities of his collection. She was never married, and died at the age of fifty, in 1682.

THE ARTIST OF THE SCISSORS.

Joanna Koerten Block is regarded by the Dutch as one of their most remarkable female artists. She was born in Amsterdam in 1650, and manifested a taste for the fine arts in her childhood. She learned music and embroidery, and how to model fruits and figures; she also understood coloring, and engraved with a diamond on crystal and glass with surprising delicacy. She also painted in oil and water colors in a novel manner. Possessing a rare art in blending colors, she copied pictures so wonderfully that they could hardly be distinguished from the originals. This faculty of imitation she carried to such perfection, that it was believed among her contemporaries that, had she devoted herself exclusively to this kind of work, she would have equaled the great masters. She gave up, however, after a while, the cultivation of this singular talent for the development of another still more extraordinary, for which she has obtained a place among the great artists of her country.

All that the engraver accomplishes with the burin, she was able to do with the scissors. Her cuttings were indeed astonishing. Country scenes, marine views, animals, flowers, with portraits of perfect resemblance, she executed in a marvelous manner. This novel style of making pictures out of white paper created not a little sensation, and ere long the matter became spread abroad widely, and excited the curiosity of all the courts of Europe. Even artists could not help admiring her skill in this strange art, and not one came to Amsterdam without paying her a visit.

The Czar Peter the Great, princes of royal blood, and nobles of the highest rank paid their respects to the simple Dutch maiden, and examined her works with pleased curiosity. The Elector Palatine offered a thousand florins for three small pieces cut by her, but the offer was declined as not liberal enough.

The Empress of Germany ordered a piece executed as a trophy of the arms of the Emperor Leopold I. The design showed the crown and imperial arms upheld by eagles, and surrounded by laurel wreaths, garlands of flowers, and appropriate ornaments. This was executed in a wonderful manner, and for it the fair artist received four thousand florins.

The portrait of the emperor, cut by Joanna, is preserved in his imperial majesty’s cabinet at Vienna. Queen Mary of England, and other royal personages, wished to decorate their cabinets with the works of this artist. She cut many portraits, with which the sitters were pleased and astonished. The Latin, German, and Dutch verses composed in her honor would fill a volume. She had in her working-room a volume in which were registered the names of her illustrious visitors, the princes and princesses and other great personages writing their own. It is the same curious register in which Nicholas Verkslie saw the portraits of illustrious persons, appended each to the proper signature. This interesting addition is said to have been made by Adrien Block, the artist’s husband. He published a series of vignettes from her pieces.

Joanna died in 1715, at the age of sixty-five. Her taste and design were marked by correctness and delicacy, and she was original and unique in the style of work to which she devoted herself. When her pieces were put over black paper, the effect was that of an engraving or pen-drawing. Neatness, clearness, and decision were her prominent characteristics.

Her portrait, coarsely engraved, is published by Descampes. She had a noble style of face, with strongly marked features. The hair is dressed in a point in front; the neckerchief and dress are worn in antiquated style.

Among the distinguished artists of the seventeenth century we must not omit

ANNA WASSER.

She was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1676, and is esteemed by the Swiss as one of their most eminent painters. Her father was Rudolph Wasser, a member of the Grand Council of Zurich, and artist of the foundation of the Cathedral. She very early evinced a remarkable faculty for learning languages, and at the age of twelve was familiar with Latin and French, and acquainted with the general literature of those tongues. Her rapid progress in belles-lettres astonished every body, and gave the promise of wonderful attainments; but the bent of her genius was for art. She took lessons of the painter Joseph Werner, and had no sooner learned to handle a pencil, than she could think of nothing else. When thirteen years old she made a copy of Werner’s “Flora” in Bern, which convinced all her friends that she was destined by nature for an artist. The painter himself praised her correct design and perfect imitation of his coloring, and advised her father to send her to Bern to study. She spent three years in the school; at first employing herself in oil painting, but finally abandoning that for miniatures. By the time her education was completed she had reached a perfection little short of that of her teacher.

Returning to Zurich, she devoted herself to art as a profession. Her productions were taken to England, Holland, and Germany, where they were greatly admired, and her contemporaries extolled her as a second Schurmann. There was scarcely a court in the German empire from which she had not commissions. Those of Baden-Durlach and Stuttgard disputed which should possess the greatest number of her works. The Duke of Wurtemberg, Eberhard Louis, and his sister, the Margravine von Durlach, sent her large portraits to be painted in miniature.

While Anna’s fame spread throughout Germany, her very success tended to throw difficulties in the way of her artistic progress. Her father was pressed with the care of a large family, and thought his interests would be favored more by multiplying the number of his daughter’s works, than by allowing her time to finish them. He urged her continually to new enterprises. Thus depressed and tied to sordid cares, Anna lost her spirits and fell into a melancholy that threatened to destroy her health. Happily, at this time, the court of Solms Braunfels made her favorable proposals of employment. She accepted the invitation, went there with one of her brothers, and soon found she would be enabled to indulge her taste for elaborating and perfecting her paintings. She rapidly regained her cheerfulness, and became the delight and admiration of the circles in which she moved. Again her father’s avarice disturbed this agreeable state of things. He sent her an abrupt summons to return home, where he expected her to do more work for his benefit. She obeyed the command, but on the journey, made in such haste, she got a severe fall, the effects of which terminated her life in 1713, at the age of thirty-four.

Fuseli possessed a painting in oil done by Anna Wasser at the age of thirteen. He gave her praise for correctness of outline, and for spirit of coloring. She appears to have excelled most in pastoral and rural pieces, which it was her delight to paint. Her compositions were marked by great ingenuity, and were finished with exquisite delicacy.

Her literary accomplishments procured her the friendship of the most eminent scholars of her day in Germany; such as Werner, Meyer, Hubert, Steller, etc., and she corresponded with many celebrated persons. Among her female friends was Clara Eimart, already mentioned among German artists. Her manners were gentle and dignified, and her character was pure and blameless. To filial obedience she would at any time sacrifice her own inclinations; indeed she often carried her devotion to excess.

The portrait given of her shows delicate and sharply defined features. The hair is worn in Grecian style, with ringlets at the side, and braids falling on her neck. She appears surrounded with flowers, with baskets of fruit beside her.

Maria Theresa van Thielen, and her two sisters, the daughters of an artist of noble family, were instructed by him in flower-painting, the first excelling also in portraits.