286 WOMEN ARTISTS.
its commencement. Although many names of female artists are now familiar to the public, and the number is rapidly increasing, few have had time to accomplish all for which they may possess the ability. The prospect, however, is one most flattering to our national pride.
The sketches of living American women who are pursuing art are chiefly prepared from materials furnished by their friends. They are given in simplicity, and may appear imperfect, but we hope indulgence may be extended to them where they are inadequate to do justice to the subject.
Rosalba Torrens is mentioned by Ramsay, in his History of South Carolina, as a meritorious landscape-painter. Praise is also bestowed on Eliza Torrens, afterward Mrs. Cochran. Miss Mary Murray painted in crayons and water-colors in New York, and produced many life-sized portraits, which gained her celebrity. Madame Planteau painted in Washington about 1820, and was highly esteemed.
Dunlap mentions Mrs. Lupton as a modeler. She presented a bust of Governor Throop to the National Academy of Design in New York, of which she was an honorary member. Many of her paintings elicited high commendation. She executed many busts in clay, of her friends. There was hardly a branch of delicate workmanship in which she did not excel, and her literary attainments were varied and extensive. She was an excellent French scholar, and a proficient in Latin, Italian, and Spanish, besides having mastered the Hebrew sufficiently to read the Old Testament with ease. In English literature she was thoroughly versed, and was an advanced student in botany and natural history.
