A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Basseporte, (Magdalen)
BASSEPORTE, (MAGDALEN) a French Artist of the last Century,
From her childhood, followed the art of painting, and excelled in birds, plants, flowers, insects, reptiles, and almost all that belongs to natural history. Her works are regarded as chefs-d'œuvre, where art rivals nature for correctness in design, for delicacy and precision of colours. In 1788, though 78 years of age, this indefatigable artist still ventured to expose herself, for whole days, to the rays of the sun, in the most painful attitudes, to copy, for the cabinet of the king, any thing that nature offered to her view of beautiful or rare in the royal gardens.
F.C.