MASSEY, MRS. GERTRUDE. Member of the Society of Miniaturists.  Born in London, 1868.  Has studied with private teachers in London and Paris.

This painter has made a specialty of miniatures and of pictures of dogs.  She has been extensively employed by various members of the royal family, of whom she painted eleven miniatures, among which was one of the late Queen.

She sends me a list of several pictures of dogs and “Pets,” all belonging to titled English ladies; also a long list of miniatures of gentlemen, ladies, and children of high degree, several being of the royal family, in addition, I suppose, to the eleven mentioned above.

She writes me:  “Constantly met King and Queen and other members.  Sittings took place at Windsor Castle, Sandringham, Marlborough House, Osborne, and Balmoral.  One dog died after first sitting; had to finish from dead dog.  Live in charming little cottage with genuine old-fashioned garden in St. John’s Wood.”

Mrs. Massey has exhibited at the Royal Academy and New Gallery, and has held a special exhibition of her pictures of dogs at the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London.

MASSIP, MARGUERITE. Member of the Society of Swiss Painters and Sculptors and of the Society of Arts and Letters, Geneva.  Born at Geneva.  Made her studies in Florence and Paris under the professors in the public schools.  Her picture of “Le Buveur” is in the Museum of Geneva; “Five o’Clock Tea,” also in a Geneva Museum; “La Bohemienne” is at Nice; “The Engagement”—­a dancer—­at St. Gall, and a large number of portraits in various cities, belonging to their subjects and their families.

Her portrait of Mme. M. L. was very much praised when exhibited in proximity with the works of some of the famous French artists.  One critic writes:  “The painting is firm and brilliant.  The hands are especially beautiful; we scarcely know to whom we can compare Mme. Massip, unless to M. Paul Dubois.  They have the same love of art, the same soberness of tone, the same scorn of artifice....  The woman who has signed such a portrait is a great artist.”  It is well known that the famous sculptor is a remarkable portraitist.

In a review of the Salon at Nice we read:  “A portrait by Mme. Massip is a magnificent canvas, without a single stroke of the charlatan.  The pose is simple and dignified; there is the serenity and repose of a woman no longer young, who makes no pretension to preserve her vanishing beauty; the costume, in black, is so managed that it would not appear superannuated nor ridiculous at any period.  The execution is that of a great talent and an artistic conscience.  It is not a portrait for a bedchamber, still less for a studio; it is a noble souvenir for a family, and should have a place in the salon, in which, around the hearth, three generations may gather, and in this serene picture may see the wife, the mother, and the grandmother, when they mourn the loss of her absolute presence.”