Woman of the Century/Luetta Elmina Braumuller

BRAUMULLER, Mrs. Luetta Elmitta, artist, born in Monson, Mass., 4th December. 1856. Her family name, Bumstead, is still a familiar one in Boston, where it was among the foremost before and after the Revolutionary War. Bumstead Hall, which was built next after Faneuil Hall, and Bumstead Place are still old landmarks in that city. Her line of ancestry on the mother's side is Puritan, the family, Wood, having come to America in 1638 and with others founded the town of Rowley, near Boston. Mrs. Braumuller's earliest recollections are closely allied to the pencil and brush, and at the age of eight years she received her first instruction in art. Since that time until the present, with the exception of a few short intervals, she has applied herself to the study of drawing and painting in all its branches. In 1880 she made her first trip to Europe, and remained nearly one year in the best studios of Berlin. In 1882 she made a second visit to Paris and Sevres, in which cities she studied porcelain painting exclusively under celebrated ceramic artists, and later in the same year she continued with a noted practical china and glass painter in Berlin. In 1889 she went to Dresden, where she acquired a knowledge of the methods of the Dresden artists. In 1890 she was again in Paris, where LUETTA ELMINA BRAUMILLER. she pursued the study of flesh-painting after the method of Hortense Richard. Mrs. Braumuller is distinctly a figure painter, although she has a complete knowledge of every branch of work connected with porcelain painting and firing. As a student and teacher it has been her greatest ambition to advance the art in America. She published a small work entitled "Lessons in China Fainting," in 1882, but, believing that a periodical would have a wider circulation and give better results, she established in New York City, in 1887, a monthly magazine devoted exclusively to the interests of amateur decorators, and known as the "China Decorator." It was a success from the first issue and now enjoys a wide circulation both in this country and in Europe, Mrs. Braumuller has the reputation of being one of the best informed women in this country on the subject of modern porcelain and pottery. She is the wife of a well-known piano manufacturer of New York City and is the mother of two children, a son and daughter.