“Miss Richards becomes symbolic or realistic by turn.  Some of her figures are creatures of the imagination, winged and iridescent, like the ’Spirit of Hope.’  Again, she paints good, honest Dutchmen, loafing about the docks.  Sometimes she has recourse to poetry and quotes Emerson for a title....  If technically she is not always convincing, it is apparent that the artist is doing some thinking for herself, and her endeavors are in good taste.”

Miss Richards has written “Letter and Spirit,” containing fifty-seven “Dramatic Sonnets of Inward Life.”

These she has illustrated by sixty full-page pictures.  Of these drawings the eminent artist, G. F. Watts, says:  “In imaginative comprehension they are more than illustrations; they are interpretations.  I find in them an assemblage of great qualities—­beauty of line, unity and abundance in composition, variety and appreciation of natural effects, with absence of manner; also unusual qualities in drawing, neither academical nor eccentric—­all carried out with great purity and completeness.”

RICHARDS, SIGNORA EMMA GAGIOTTI. Rome.

[No reply to circular.]

RIES, THERESE FEODOROWNA. Bronze medal at Ekaterinburg; Karl Ludwig gold medal, Vienna; gold medal, Paris Exposition, 1900.  Officer of the Academy.  Born in Moscow.  Pupil of the Moscow Academy and of Professor Hellmer, Vienna, women not being admitted to the Vienna Academy.

A critic in the Studio of July, 1901, who signs his article A. S. L., writes as follows of this remarkable artist:  “Not often does it fall to the lot of a young artist to please both critic and public at the same time, and, having gained their interest, to continue to fill their expectations.  But it was so with Feodorowna Ries, a young Russian artist who some eight months ago had never even had a piece of clay in her hand, but who, by dint of ‘self,’ now stands amongst the foremost of her profession.  It was chance that led Miss Ries to the brush, and another chance which led her to abandon the brush for the chisel.  Five years ago she was awarded the Carl Ludwig gold medal for her ‘Lucifer,’ and at the last Paris Exhibition she gained the gold medal for her ‘Unbesiegbaren’ (The Unconquerable).

“Miss Ries was born and educated in Moscow, but Vienna is the city of her adoption.  She first studied painting at the Moscow Academy, her work there showing great breadth of character and power of delineation.  At the yearly Exhibition in Moscow, held some five months after she had entered as a student, she took the gold medal for her ’Portrait of a Russian Peasant.’  She then abandoned painting for sculpture, and one month later gained the highest commendations for a bust of ‘Ariadne.’  She then began to study the plastic art from life.  Dissatisfied with herself, although her ‘Somnambulist’ gained a prize, Miss Ries left Moscow for Paris, but on her way stayed in Vienna, studying under Professor Hellmer.  One year later, at the Vienna Spring Exhibition, she exhibited her ‘Die Hexe.’  Here is no traditional witch, though the broomstick on which she will ride through the air is en evidence.  She is a demoniac being, knowing her own power, and full of devilish instinct.  The marble is full of life, and one seems to feel the warmth of her delicate, powerfully chiselled, though soft and pliable limbs.”