SPILIMBERG, IRENE DI. Born in Udina, 1540.  Her family was of German origin and exalted position.  She was educated in Venice with great care and all the advantages that wealth could command.  She was much in the society of learned men, which she preferred before that of the world of fashion.

Titian was her roaster in painting.  Lanzi and Rudolfi praised her as an artist, and her fame now rests on the testimony of those who saw her works rather than on the pictures themselves, some of which are said to be in private collections in Italy.  Titian painted her portrait as a tribute to her beauty; Tasso celebrated her intellectual charm in a sonnet, and yet she was but nineteen years old when she died.

Twenty years later a collection of orations and poems was published, all of which set forth her attractions and acquirements, and emphasized the sadness of her early death and the loss that the world had suffered thereby.  When one remembers how soon after death those who have done a life work are forgotten, such a memorial to one so young is worthy of note.

SPURR, GERTRUDE E. Associate member of Royal Canadian Academy and member of the Ontario Society of Arts.  Born in Scarborough, England.  Pupil of the Lambeth Art School in drawing, of E. H. Holder in painting, in England; also of George B. Bridgman in New York.  This artist usually paints small pictures of rural scenery in England and Wales—­little stone cottages, bridges, river and mountain scenes.  “Castle Rock, North Devon,” was exhibited at Buffalo, and is owned by Herbert Mason, Esq., of Toronto.  “A Peep at Snowdon” and “Dutch Farm Door, Ontario,” are in Montreal collections.  Her works have been exhibited in London at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Society of Lady Artists, and have been sold from these exhibitions.

I quote from the Queen, in reference to one of Miss Spurr’s London exhibitions:  “We know of no more favorite sketching-ground in N. Wales for the artist than Bettws-y-coed.  Every yard of that most picturesque district has been painted and sketched over and over again.  The artist in this instance reproduces some of the very primitive cottages in which the natives of the principality sojourn.  The play of light on the modest dwelling-places is an effective element in the cleverly rendered drawing now in the Society of Artists’ Exhibition.  Miss Spurr, the daughter of a Scarboro lawyer, commenced her art studies with Mr. E. H. Holder, in the winter painting dead birds, fruit, and other natural objects, and in summer spending her time on the coast or in the woods or about Rievaulx Abbey.  Any remaining time to be filled up was occupied by attending the Scarboro School of Art under the instruction of Mr. Strange.  In a local sketching club Miss Spurr distinguished herself and gained several prizes, and she has at length taken up her abode in the metropolis, where she has attended the Lambeth Schools, studying diligently both from casts and life.”