GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
felt ; but is there any at all for the woman artist, who has not yet 
received official position ?—for since Angelica Kauffmann, no one 
of my sex has passed within the sacred pale of the Royal Academy, 
although I could mention at least half a dozen women whose work 
during the last twenty-five years—if measured by the masculine 
standard—ought to have carried them in; they have not been 
geniuses, it is true; but the ranks of the Academicians would be 
sadly depleted if all who are not geniuses walked out. 
At the period of which I have just been speaking, the would-be 
woman artist had advanced a very little way, even on the road to 
equal educational rights. The step taken by Laura Herford led, 
it is true, straight to the closed door of the Academy Schools, which 
was now set partly open; but here someone within must have 
cried “‘ Halt!’ In vain we begged for fuller opportunities for 
study. It was the year before mentioned, when the women, still 
largely in the minority in the Schools, and permitted to compete for 
but few of the premiums, had done well ; two silver medals, as well as 
the gold, falling to our share. On the principle that half a loaf is 
better than no bread, we asked for a partial removal of our dis- 
abilities, and that at least we might be allowed to study from a 
half-draped model. I had been made to head the petition, and back 
came the reply to me : “‘ Unanimously condemned as inexpedient.”’ 
Therefore we had to supplement the very excellent training we had 
so far received, with the best practice from the life that we could 
obtain elsewhere. 
I enlarge upon this subject, not only because it may be not 
without interest to those who care for the fortunes of British art— 
to consider the difficulties that long beset the path of the woman 
who was ambitious to become more than a mere amateur—but also 
because I think those who have freely enjoyed—and others who 
now enjoy, what came too late to be of use to us, already launched 
as we were on our careers as exhibiting artists—owe something of 
their good fortune to our pioneer efforts, and most of all because I 
am convinced that it was mainly the influence of Lord Leighton— 
as he afterwards became—that so fortunately brought about the 
change. No doubt Philip Calderon—both before and after he 
became Keeper, deserves some of the credit—for I remember how 
strongly he always insisted that every draped figure in a costume 
picture should first of all have been carefully drawn from the nude. 
306 
