In spite of all her talent and all her success the end of Madame O’Connell’s life was sad beyond expression.  Her health suffered, her reason tottered and faded out, yet life remained and she was for years in an asylum for the insane.  Everything that had surrounded her in her Paris home was sold at auction.  No time was given and no attempt was made to bring her friends together.  No one who had known or loved her was there to shed a tear or to bear away a memento of her happy past.  All the beautiful things of which we have spoken were sacrificed and scattered as unconscionably as if she had never loved or her friends enjoyed them.

In the busy world of Paris no one remembered the brilliant woman who had flashed upon them, gained her place among them, and then disappeared.  They recalled neither her genius nor her womanly qualities which they had admired, appreciated, and so soon forgotten!

OOSTERWYCK, MARIA VAN. The seventeenth century is remarkable for the perfection attained in still-life and flower painting.  The most famous masters in this art were William van Aelst of Delft, the brothers De Heem of Utrecht, William Kalf and the Van Huysums of Amsterdam.  The last of this name, however, Jan van Huysum, belongs to the next century.

Maria van Oosterwyck and Rachel Ruysch disputed honors with the above named and are still famous for their talents.

The former was a daughter of a preacher of the reformed religion.  She was born at Nootdorp, near Delft, in 1630.  She was the pupil of Jan David de Heem, and her pictures were remarkable for accuracy in drawing, fine coloring, and an admirable finish.

Louis XIV. of France, William III. of England, the Emperor Leopold of Germany, and Augustus I. of Poland gave her commissions for pictures.  Large prices were paid her in a most deferential manner, as if the tributes of friendship rather than the reward of labor, and to these generous sums were added gifts of jewels and other precious objects.

Of Maria van Oosterwyck Kugler writes:  “In my opinion she does not occupy that place in the history of the art of this period that she deserves, which may be partly owing to the rarity of her pictures, especially in public galleries.  For although her flower pieces are weak in arrangement and often gaudy in the combination of color, she yet represents her flowers with the utmost truth of drawing, and with a depth, brilliancy, and juiciness of local coloring unattained by any other flower painter”

A picture in the Vienna Gallery of a sunflower with tulips and poppies, in glowing color, is probably her best work in a public collection.  Her pictures are also in the galleries of Dresden, Florence, Carlsruhe, Copenhagen, the Schwerin Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of New York.