WOMAN IN ART
at the Consulate. The first summer in Italy, six of the girls (myself included) from Miss Mayer's went to Venice, and I continued to go (off and on) for about six years. I joined the Circolo Artisties and the Societa degli Aquarresish in Rome, also had an exhibition of water colors. Queen Margaretta who was present sent for me and complimented me. I used to work with other of the students at the Circolo from eight o'clock to ten, and painted from the model. I also painted with Cammerano and Vertunni."
Singing with other students in the choir of the American Church was a pleasure and added a variety to her life in Italy. "In 1883 I met my husband, P. H. Nicholls, in Venice, and married him one year after in our old family home in Brookfield, England. We came to America and lived many years in New York."
In 1881 Rhoda Holmes spent nearly a year with her family in South Africa, her eldest brother going to England for her. Her opportunities for sketching and her subjects were most unusual; on her return to England, and later when New York became her home, she exhibited some of her African paintings—"The Ostrich Farm," "The Song of the Throstle," "Wind in the Tree Tops," "Indian After the Chase." Many of Mrs. Nicholls' later paintings portray subjects of American interest; "The Scarlet Letter" is one, and it tells its story with pathos that would have satisfied the author. The youthful "Narcissus" is admiring his ivy-wreathed head in a calm woodland stream that winds its beauty through a bit of tropical-looking forest. "Search the Scriptures" is a heart-touching picture; the aged mother in her quaint chair bends over the large Bible on her lap; the white cap and the kerchief over bent shoulders suggest years of toil that have been ticked away by the tall clock in the room; and that sorrows have added weight to the years is a truth one reads in the laurel wreath preserved on the wall back of her chair. "Prima Vera, Venezia," one of her best, was bought for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the beauty of "Water Lilies" is there also. "Those Evening Bells"—"how many a tale their music tells!" Yes, a painting or a view will recall scenes and voices from the vanishing past. The artist has touched the poetry of art on that canvas.
Much of her spirit of art has been expressed with aquarelles, with great success. We recall a beautiful head in profile, wreathed with poppies, broadly yet delicately painted—a fine study.
Much influence for the uplift of art has gone from the painter's pen as well as her brush. Rhoda Holmes Nicholls has been on the staff of the Art Interchange and the Art Amateur, and co-editor of "Palette and Brush." Her
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