A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Corbaux, Fanny
CORBAUX, FANNY.
Was born in the year 1812; her father was an Englishman, although he resided much abroad; he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and published several mathematical and statistical works, which gained for him a high place in the estimation of scientific men. Fanny early manifested a love for the fine arts, and when, she being but fifteen years of age, her father's circumstances became much reduced, and his mind and body enfeebled by ill health, she turned her attention entirely to painting as a means of support for herself and parent. Of her almost unaided struggles, her devotion to her chosen art, her perseverance, much might be said; but let it suffice that in 1827 she received the first public recognition of her merit in the large silver medal of the Society of Arts, for an original portrait in miniature; the Isis medal for a copy of figures in water-colours; and the silver palette for a copy of an engraving. In the following year she again obtained the silver Isis medal, and in 1830, the Society's highest award—the gold medal, for a miniature portrait. Thenceforward her success as a portrait-painter has been rapid and steady, and to this branch of art she as chiefly devoted herself, more, perhaps, from necessity than choice; for she has a vigorous and lively fancy, and, as many of her paintings shew, possesses all the requisites for excelling in imaginative subjects. To her belongs the credit of having broken down the barrier of custom, which excluded female painters from the Academy lectures; and of having, solely by her own genius and ability, attained a high position in a most difficult and laborious branch of her profession.
But not only as an artist is Miss Corbaux known to the intelligent public of this country,—her reputation as a Biblical historiographer and critic stands deservedly high. Her deep study of the Bible, chosen, it would seem, as a recreation, has resulted in various papers, communicated to literary societies, and such periodicals as the "Athenæum," and the "Journal of Sacred Literature;" in the former appeared her "Letters on the Physical Geography of the Exodus;" and in the latter, a series of articles embodying the history of the nation termed in the Bible the Rephaim, whose close connections with the political institutions and monumental history of Egypt is clearly pointed out by the author, whose critical acumen has thrown much light in this abstruse field of research.