Part 36 (1/2)

RHODA HOLMES NICHOLS]

Mrs. Nicholls is also known as an ill.u.s.trator. Harold Payne says of her: ”Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, although an ill.u.s.trator of the highest order, cannot be strictly cla.s.sed as one, for the reason that she is equally great in every other branch of art. However, as many of her best examples of water-colors are ultimately reproduced for ill.u.s.trative purposes, and as even her oil paintings frequently find their way into the pages of art publications, it is not wrong to denominate her as an ill.u.s.trator, and that of the most varied and prolific type. She may, like most artists, have a specialty, but a walk through her studio and a critical examination of her work--ranging all along the line of oil paintings, water-colors of the most exquisite type, wash drawings, crayons, and pastels--would scarcely result in discovering her specialty.... As a colorist she has few rivals, and her acute knowledge of drawing and genius for composition are apparent in everything she does.”

NICHOLS, CATHERINE MAUDE, R. E. The pictures of this artist have been hung on the line at the Royal Academy exhibitions a dozen times at least. From Munich she has received an official letter thanking her for sending her works to exhibitions in that city. Fellow of the Royal Painter-Etchers' Society; president of the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r Art Club, Norwich; Member of Norwich Art Circle and of a Miniature Painters' Society and the Green Park Club, London. Born in Norwich. Self-taught. Has worked in the open at Barbizon, in Normandy, in Cornwall, Devon, London, and all around the east coast of Norfolk.

Miss Nichols has held three exhibitions of her pictures both in oil and water-colors in London. She has executed more than a hundred copper plates, chiefly dry-points. The pictures in oils and water-colors, the miniatures and the proofs of her works have found purchasers, almost without exception, and are in private hands. Most of the plates she has retained.

Miss Nichols has ill.u.s.trated some books, her own poems being of the number, as well as her ”Old Norwich.” She has also made ill.u.s.trations for journals and magazines.

One is impressed most agreeably with the absence of mannerism in Miss Nichols' work, as well as with the p.r.o.nounced artistic treatment of her subjects. Her sketches of sea and river scenery are attractive; the views from her home county, Norfolk, have a delightful feeling about them.

”Norwich River at Evening” is not only a charming picture, but shows, in its perspective and its values, the hand of a skilful artist. ”Mousehold Heath,” showing a rough and broken country, is one of her strongest pictures in oils; ”Stretching to the Sea” is also excellent. Among the water-colors ”Strangers' Hall,” Norwich, and ”Fleeting Clouds,” merit attention, as do a number of others. One could rarely see so many works, with such varied subjects, treated in oils, water-colors, dry point, etc., by the same artist.

I quote the following paragraph from the _Studio_ of April, 1903: ”Miss C. M. Nichols is an artist of unquestionable talent, and her work in the various mediums she employs deserves careful attention. She paints well both in water-colors and in oil, and her etchings are among the best that the lady artists of our time have produced. Her drawing is good, her observation is close and accurate, and she shows year by year an improvement in design. Miss Nichols was for several years the only lady fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers.”

Her ”Brancaster Staithe” and ”Fir Trees, Crown Point,” dry points, are in the Norwich Art Gallery, presented by Sir Seymour Haden, president of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. Two of her works, a large oil painting of ”Earlham” and a water-color of ”Strangers' Hall,” have been purchased by subscription and presented to the Norwich Castle Art Gallery.

NICOLAU Y PARODY, TERESA. Member of the Academy of San Fernando and of the Academy of San Carlos of Valencia. This artist, who was born in Madrid, early showed an enthusiasm for painting, which she at first practised in various styles, but gradually devoted herself entirely to miniature. She has contributed to many public exhibitions, and has received many prizes and honorable mentions, as well as praise from the critics. Among her portraits are those of Isabel de Braganza, Was.h.i.+ngton, Mme. de Montespan, Mme. Dubarry, Queen Margaret of Austria, and Don Carlos, son of Philip II. Her other works include a ”Magdalen in the Desert,” ”Laura and Petrarch,” ”Joseph with the Christ-Child,” ”Francis I. at the Battle of Pavia,” and many good copies after celebrated painters.

NIEDERHaUSEN, MLLE. SOPHIE. Medal at the Swiss National Exposition, 1896. Member of the Exposition permanente de l'Athenee, Geneva. Born at Geneva. Pupil of Professor Wymann and M. Albert Gos, and of M. and Mme.

Demont-Breton in France.

Mlle. Niederhausen paints landscapes princ.i.p.ally, and has taken her subjects from the environs of Geneva, in the Valais, and in Pas-de-Calais, France.

Her picture, called the ”Bord du Lac de Geneve,” was purchased by the city and is in the Rath Museum. She also paints flowers, and uses water-colors as well as oils.

n.o.bILI, ELENA. Silver medal at the Beatrice Exposition, Florence, 1890. Born in Florence, where she resides. She is most successful in figure subjects. She is sympathetic in her treatment of them and is able to impart to her works a sentiment which appeals to the observer. Among her pictures are ”Reietti,” ”The Good-Natured One,” ”September,” ”In the Country,” ”Music,” and ”Contrasts.”

NORMAND, MRS. ERNEST--HENRIETTA RAE. Medals in Paris and at Chicago Exposition, 1893. Born in London, 1859. Daughter of T. B. Rae, Esquire.

Married the artist, Ernest Normand, 1884. Pupil of Queen's Square School of Art, Heatherley's, British Museum, and Royal Academy Schools. Began the study of art at the age of thirteen. First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and has sent important pictures there annually since that time.

Mrs. Normand executed decorative frescoes in the Royal Exchange, London, the subject being ”Sir Richard Whittington and His Charities.”

In the past ten years she has exhibited ”Mariana,” 1893; ”Psyche at the Throne of Venus,” 1894; ”Apollo and Daphne,” 1895; ”Summer,” 1896; ”Isabella,” 1897; ”Diana and Calisto,” 1899; ”Portrait of Marquis of Dufferin and Ava,” 1901; ”Lady Winifred Renshaw and Son,” and the ”Sirens,” 1903, which is a picture of three nude enchantresses, on a sandy sh.o.r.e, watching a distant galley among rocky islets.

[_No reply to circular_.]

NOURSE, ELIZABETH. Medal at Chicago Exposition, 1903; Nashville Exposition, 1897; Carthage Inst.i.tute, Tunis, 1897; elected a.s.sociate of the Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895; silver medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; elected Societaire des Beaux-Arts, 1901. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she began her studies, later going to the Julian Academy, under Boulanger and Lefebvre, and afterward studying with Carolus Duran and Henner. This artist idealizes the subjects of every-day, practical life, and gives them a poetic quality which is an uncommon and delightful attainment.

At the Salon des Beaux-Arts, 1902, Miss Nourse exhibited ”The Children,”

”Evening Toilet of the Baby,” ”In the Shade at Pen'march,” ”Brother and Sister at Pen'march,” ”The Madeleine Chapel at Pen'march.” In 1903, ”Our Lady of Joy, Pen'march,” ”Around the Cradle,” ”The Little Sister,” and ”A Breton Interior.”