For women, an artistic career was a rocky road for a long time. For this reason there are many depictions of women and girls in the fine arts, but there are only a few pictures of graceful female figures and faces painted by a woman in old-masterly style. The later master of such depictions, born Sophie Gengembre, had an easier time of it in that she was the daughter of a Parisian architect who maintained close contact with artistic circles. Thus Sophie began to paint on her own as a young girl, until at the age of twenty she underwent training with the history and portrait painter Carl von Steuben in Paris.
Through her mother, who was English, she also had a natural relationship with the Anglo-Saxon world from birth, and so the move to the United States of America should not have been too difficult for her. There she remained true to painting, which was probably made easier by the fact that she met and soon married the British genre painter Walter Anderson. As Sophie Anderson, she then celebrated her first successes as a painter at various exhibitions. The fact that her marriage became a community of artists was also conducive to her painterly development. Together with her husband she created a series of portraits. The fact that the painter couple moved around in America and also commuted between the New World and London did not detract from their productivity. Finally, in 1871, for health reasons, the painting couple moved to Capri, the beautiful island in the Gulf of Naples, which at that time became a magnet for artists from all over the world. They settled in the Villa Castello, where they cultivated a lively exchange with other painters and other creative people, not least in their garden. It can be assumed that in this way they made contact with the Buffalo-born and Capri had American painter Charles Caryl Coleman, whose famous paintings include those of the Villa Castello. Of the pictures painted in Capri by Sophie Anderson, the depictions of "Fisherman's Children Capri" and "Shepherd's Pipes Capri" are particularly enchanting.
Sophie Anderson's style and choice of motifs connect her to the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists. Her way of painting is characterized by a detailed representation of nature. Likewise, Mrs. Anderson's choice of subject shows an affinity to the painters of this brotherhood, when she, like them, expresses the soul life of the sitters in her precisely drawn, bright and friendly depictions of people. Today, the beauty of her women and girls is associated with the Victorian ideal. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, however, she also devoted herself to religious and mythical themes, such as in the pictures "The Council of Angels" or "Foundling Girls in Prayer in the Chapel". Returning to England, Sophie Anderson died at the age of 80 in Falmouth/Cornwall.
For women, an artistic career was a rocky road for a long time. For this reason there are many depictions of women and girls in the fine arts, but there are only a few pictures of graceful female figures and faces painted by a woman in old-masterly style. The later master of such depictions, born Sophie Gengembre, had an easier time of it in that she was the daughter of a Parisian architect who maintained close contact with artistic circles. Thus Sophie began to paint on her own as a young girl, until at the age of twenty she underwent training with the history and portrait painter Carl von Steuben in Paris.
Through her mother, who was English, she also had a natural relationship with the Anglo-Saxon world from birth, and so the move to the United States of America should not have been too difficult for her. There she remained true to painting, which was probably made easier by the fact that she met and soon married the British genre painter Walter Anderson. As Sophie Anderson, she then celebrated her first successes as a painter at various exhibitions. The fact that her marriage became a community of artists was also conducive to her painterly development. Together with her husband she created a series of portraits. The fact that the painter couple moved around in America and also commuted between the New World and London did not detract from their productivity. Finally, in 1871, for health reasons, the painting couple moved to Capri, the beautiful island in the Gulf of Naples, which at that time became a magnet for artists from all over the world. They settled in the Villa Castello, where they cultivated a lively exchange with other painters and other creative people, not least in their garden. It can be assumed that in this way they made contact with the Buffalo-born and Capri had American painter Charles Caryl Coleman, whose famous paintings include those of the Villa Castello. Of the pictures painted in Capri by Sophie Anderson, the depictions of "Fisherman's Children Capri" and "Shepherd's Pipes Capri" are particularly enchanting.
Sophie Anderson's style and choice of motifs connect her to the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists. Her way of painting is characterized by a detailed representation of nature. Likewise, Mrs. Anderson's choice of subject shows an affinity to the painters of this brotherhood, when she, like them, expresses the soul life of the sitters in her precisely drawn, bright and friendly depictions of people. Today, the beauty of her women and girls is associated with the Victorian ideal. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, however, she also devoted herself to religious and mythical themes, such as in the pictures "The Council of Angels" or "Foundling Girls in Prayer in the Chapel". Returning to England, Sophie Anderson died at the age of 80 in Falmouth/Cornwall.
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