Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/501

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WOMEN IN THE FINE ARTS


represents a retired nook in a garden, overgrown with foliage and flowers, so well painted that one feels that they must be fragrant.

Lepsius, Sabina. Daughter of Gustav Graf and wife of the portrait painter, Lepsius. She was a pupil of Gussow, then of the Julian Academy in Paris, and later studied in Rome. Her pictures have an unusual refinement; like some other German women artists, she aims at giving a subtle impression of character and personality in her treatment of externals, and her work has been said to affect one like music.

The portrait of her little daughter, painted in a manner which suggests Van Dyck, is one of the works which entitle her to consideration.

Leyster, Judith. A native of Haarlem on Zandam, the date of her birth being unknown. She died in 1660. In 1636 she married the well-known artist, Jan Molemaer. She did her work at a most interesting period in Dutch painting. Her earliest picture is dated 1629; she was chosen to the Guild of St. Luke at Haarlem in 1633.

Recent investigations make it probable that certain pictures which have for generations been attributed to Frans Hals were the work of Judith Leyster. In 1893 a most interesting lawsuit, which occurred in London and was reported in the TimeSy concerned a picture known as "The Fiddlers," which had been sold as a work of Frans Hals for £4,S00. The purchasers found that this claim was not well founded, and sought to recover their money.

A searching investigation traced the ownership of the