A FRENCH PRINCE _Marie Vigée Le Brun_

LA VIERGE AU ROSIER _Sadie Waters_
By courtesy of Braun, Clément et Cie.

SONG OF AGES _Ethel Wright_
From a Copley print.

STATUE OF DANIEL BOONE _Enid Yandell_
Made for St. Louis Exposition.




INTRODUCTION


In studying the subject of this book I have found the names of more than
a thousand women whose attainments in the Fine Arts--in various countries
and at different periods of time before the middle of the nineteenth
century--entitle them to honorable mention as artists, and I doubt not
that an exhaustive search would largely increase this number. The stories
of many of these women have been written with more or less detail, while
of others we know little more than their names and the titles of a few of
their works; but even our scanty knowledge of them is of value.

Of the army of women artists of the last century it is not yet possible
to speak with judgment and justice, although many have executed works of
which all women may be proud.