Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/350

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
WOMEN IN THE FINE ARTS
251


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 illustrated some books, her own poems being of the number, as well as her "Old Norwich." She has also made illustrations for journals and magazines.

One is impressed most agreeably with the absence of mannerism in Miss Nichols' work, as well as with the pronounced 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