In the Museum at Nancy are Mlle. Mayer’s portraits of Mme. and Mlle. Voiant; in the Museum of Dijon is an ideal head by her, and in the Bordeaux Gallery is her picture, called “Confidence.”  “Innocence Prefers Love to Riches” and the “Torch of Venus” are well-known works by Mlle. Mayer.

MESDAG-VAN HOUTEN, S. Gold medal at Amsterdam, 1884; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1889.  Born at Groningen, 1834.  In 1856 she married Mesdag, who, rather late in life decided to follow the career of a painter.  His wife, not wishing to be separated from him in any sense, resolved on the same profession, and about 1870 they began their study.  Mme. Mesdag acquired her technique with difficulty, and her success was achieved only as the result of great perseverance and continual labor.  The artists of Oosterbeck and Brussels, who were her associates, materially aided her by their encouragement.  She began the study of drawing at the age of thirty, and her first attempt in oils was made seven years later.  Beginning with single twigs and working over them patiently she at length painted whole trees, and later animals.  She came to know the peculiarities of nearly all native trees.

She built a studio in the woods of Scheveningen, and there developed her characteristics—­close observation and careful reproduction of details.

In the summer of 1872 M. and Mme. Mesdag went to Friesland and Drenthe, where they made numerous sketches of the heath, sheep, farmhouses, and the people in their quaint costumes.  One of Mme. Mesdag’s pictures, afterward exhibited at Berlin, is thus described:  “On this canvas we see the moon, just as she has broken through a gray cloud, spreading her silvery sheen over the sleepy land; in the centre we are given a sheep-fold, at the door of which a flock of sheep are jostling and pushing each other, all eager to enter their place of rest.  The wave-like movement of these animals is particularly graceful and cleverly done.  A little shepherdess is guiding them, as anxious to get them in as they are to enter, for this means the end of her day’s work.  Her worn-out blue petticoat is lighted up by a moonbeam; in her hand she appears to have a hoe.  It is a most harmonious picture; every line is in accord with its neighbor.”

While residing in Brussels these two artists began to collect works of art for what is now known as the Mesdag Museum.  In 1887 a wing was added to their house to accommodate their increasing treasures, which include especially good examples of modern French painting, pottery, tapestry, etc.

In 1889 an exhibition of the works of these painters was held.  Here convincing proof was given of Mme. Mesdag’s accuracy, originality of interpretation, and her skill in the use of color.

MOeLLER, AGNES SLOTT, OR SLOTT-MOeLLER, AGNES. This artist follows the young romantic movement in Denmark.  She has embodied in her work a modern comprehension of old legends.  The landscape and people of her native land seem to her as eminently suitable motives, and these realities she renders in the spirit of a by-gone age—­that of the national heroes of the sagas and epics of the country, or the lyric atmosphere of the folk-songs.