Page:Women Artists in All Ages and Countries original scans.djvu/305

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MRS. DUBOIS. 297


Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Struck with the as- pect of a distinguished person in the company—Mr. Kmerson—the sculptress gave directions to stop near a bank of soft red clay, and, putting out one hand to grasp a sufficient portion of the material, with the other she signed to her subject to remain motionless. In a few moments she had modeled a very creditable likeness of the author.

MRS. DUBOIS.

Mrs. Cornelius Dubois, now residing in New York, and devoted to the charitable institution of the Nurs- ery and Child’s Hospital, has shown much talent for sculpture and cameo-cutting. Mrs. Lee describes her as having discovered, accidentally, about 1842, a taste for modeling, in the following manner: “ Her father had his bust taken. Before the casting, he asked his daughter her opinion of it as a likeness. She pointed out some defects which the artist corrected in her presence, upon which she exclaimed, ‘I could do that!’ and requested the sculptor to give her some clay, from which she modeled, with but little labor, a bust of her husband, and was eminently successful in the likeness. She then decided to take lessons, but illness having interfered with her plans, she abandoned the intention, and worked on by herself, with merely the instruction from the sculptor to keep her aay moist until her work was completed.

“When she recovered her health sufficiently, she continued to mould, and, among other works, produced the likenesses of two of her little children, the group of Cupid and Psyche, a copy; and a novice, an orig- inal piece. She also carved a head of the Madonna in marble; a laborious and exciting work, which in-

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