Caterina executed many miniatures, and her easel pictures were not large.  These were owned by private families.  She is known to us by two pictures of “St. Ursula folding her Robe about her Companions.”  One is in the Bologna Gallery, the other in the Academy in Venice.  The first is on a wooden panel, and was painted when the artist was thirty-nine years old.  The Saint is represented as unnaturally tall, the figures of her virgins being very small.  The mantle and robe of St. Ursula are of rich brocade ornamented with floral designs, while on each side of her is a white flag, on which is a red cross.  The face of the saint is so attractive that one forgets the elongation of her figure.  There is a delicacy in the execution, combined with a freedom and firmness of handling fully equal to the standard of her school and time.  Many honors were paid to the memory of Caterina de Vigri.  She was chosen as the protectress of Academies and Art Institutions, and in the eighteenth century a medal was coined, on which she is represented as painting on a panel held by an angel.  How few human beings are thus honored three centuries after death!

VINCENT, MME. See Labille.

VISSCHER, ANNA AND MARIA. These daughters of the celebrated Dutch engraver were known as “the Dutch Muses.”  They made their best reputation by their etchings on glass, but they were also well known for their writing of both poetry and prose.  They were associated with the scholars of their time and were much admired.

VOLKMAR, ANTONIE ELIZABETH CAECILIA. Born in Berlin, 1827.  She studied with Schroder in her native city, with L. Cogniet in Paris, and later in Italy.  She returned to Berlin, where she painted portraits and genre subjects.  Her picture of the “Grandmother telling Stories” is in the Museum of Stettin.  Among her works are “An Artist’s Travels” a “German Emigrant,” and “School Friends.”

VONNOH, BESSIE POTTER. Bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; Second Prize at Tennessee Centennial.  Honorable mention at Buffalo Exposition, 1901.  Member of the National Sculpture Society and National Arts Club.  Born in St. Louis, Missouri, 1872.

This sculptor is a pupil of the Art Institute, Chicago.  Among her best works are “A Young Mother”; “Twin Sisters”; “His First Journey”; “Girl Reading,” etc.

In the Century Magazine, September, 1897, Arthur Hoeber wrote:  “There were shown at the Society of American Artists in New York, in the Spring of 1896, some statuettes of graceful young womanhood, essentially modern in conception, singularly naive in treatment, refined, and withal intensely personal....  While the disclosure is by no means novel, Miss Potter makes us aware that in the daily prosaic life about us there are possibilities conventional yet attractive, simple, but containing much of suggestion, waiting only the sympathetic touch to be responsive if the proper chord is struck.”