Women Painters of the World - From the Time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day #225016

As examples in art of complete womanliness, mention may be made of two exquisite portraits by Ma dame Le Brun, in which, whilst representing her little daughter and herself, the painter discloses the inner essence and the life of maternal love, and discloses them with a caressing playfulness of passion unattainable by men, and sometimes unappreciated by men. Here, indeed, we have the poetry of universal motherhood, common to the household hearts of good women the wide world over. Such pictures may not be the highest form of painting, but highest they are in their own realm of human emotion; and they recall to one's memory that truth in which Napoleon the Great ranked the gentler sex as the most potent of all creative artists. The future destiny of children, said he, is always the work of mothers.