![]()
Matilda Browne, Peonies, 1907. Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, USA.
A Forgotten Female Impressionist
被遗忘的印象派女画家
By Alexandra Kiely
文/亚历山德拉·凯利
译/李苹
Matilda Browne (1869–1947) was a successful artist in the early 20th century, but unfortunately, few people know her name or her art today.玛蒂尔达·布朗（1869—1947）是20世纪早期成功的画家，但遗憾的是，如今很少有人知道她的名字或作品。Matilda Browne showed promising artistic talent early in her life. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, she got an introduction to art by watching her neighbor, Hudson River School painter Thomas Moran.玛蒂尔达·布朗早年就显露出强大的艺术天赋。她在新泽西州纽瓦克市长大，通过观察邻居——哈德逊河派画家托马斯·莫兰作画，她初步接触到艺术。Her parents supported their budding young artist. She studied with many teachers, including Moran, Kate and Eleanor Greatorex (daughters of Eliza Pratt Greatorex), Carleton Wiggins, and Julian Dupré. Her mother took her to Europe for training while she was still quite young. And it paid off. Matilda Browne participated in her first major exhibition at the National Academy of Design when she was just twelve years old.这位新生年轻画家得到了父母的支持。她师从众家，如莫兰、凯特·格雷特雷克斯和埃莉诺·格雷特雷克斯（伊丽莎·普拉特·格雷特雷克斯的两个女儿）、卡尔顿·威金斯和朱利安·杜普雷。幼时，母亲就带她去欧洲学习，并学有所成。玛蒂尔达·布朗年仅12岁就在美国国家设计学院举办了她的第一次大展。Browne loved to paint animals, especially cows and other livestock. She also painted many flowers, often in colorful garden landscapes. Her bold brushwork gave her floral paintings a lush, fluffy appearance that is easy to identify once you’ve seen it a few times. Her style is best described as Impressionism, although her pastoral animal scenes recall French Barbizon landscape painting. She also made some bronze animal sculptures.布朗热衷画动物，尤其是奶牛等牲畜。她也画了很多花，通常是色彩绚丽的花园风景。她笔法大胆，笔下的花卉画丰富华美、柔和轻盈，一旦见过几次，很容易就能认出来。虽然她的田园动物风景让人想起法国巴比松画派的山水画，但确切地说，她的风格是印象派。她还制作过一些青铜动物雕塑。![]()
Matilda Browne, At the Watering Hole, 1905, private collection. The Athenaeum.
Matilda Browne quickly became a respected and successful artist. Her list of accolades opened doors that would have been otherwise un-accessible for a female artist of her time. As an adult, she moved to Connecticut, where she painted in the Cos Cob and Old Lyme art colonies[1]. At Old Lyme, she was the only woman accepted into the inner circle living and working at Florence Griswold’s boarding house. Although the group wasn’t typically friendly to female artists, these men liked and respected Browne. She even had the honor of painting a door in Miss Florence’s house, on which she depicted two peaceful cows in a bucolic landscape. Some sources say that her good sense of humor helped her fit in with the boys, while others claim that her seriousness is what won them over. Either way, her great skill as a painter made these other artists take notice. Her membership in the Old Lyme Art Colony is commemorated by her inclusion in Henry Rankin Poore’s Fox Chase[2], a playful frieze over Miss Florence’s dining room fireplace.玛蒂尔达·布朗很快成为备受尊敬的成功画家。众多荣誉加身，为她敲开一扇扇大门。对那个时代的女性画家来说，若非这种种荣誉，这些大门是无法开启的。成年后，她移居康涅狄格州，在科斯科布和旧莱姆镇艺术区绘画。她是旧莱姆镇唯一能进入画家核心圈子的女性；这些画家在弗洛伦丝·格里斯沃尔德的寄宿公寓生活和创作。虽然这群男性通常对女性画家不怎么友好，但他们喜欢且尊重布朗。她甚至还有幸在弗洛伦丝女士的公寓房门上作画，门上一片田园风光，两头奶牛神态安然。有些人认为她俏皮风趣，能和男画家融洽相处，另一些人则认为她举止稳重，赢得了男性的支持。不管怎样，她画技高超，引得这些异性画家另眼相待。弗洛伦丝女士公寓餐厅的壁炉上方有幅长条横幅画，是亨利·兰金·普尔的戏作《追狐》，上面画有布朗，她是旧莱姆镇艺术区一员的身份有此为念。[1] art colony 艺术区或艺术村，艺术家们一起生活和创作的地方。诞生于19世纪，艺术家们远离城市和工业化，到乡村的自然风光和简朴、宁静生活中寻找新灵感，他们常常聚集在一起生活和创作。[2] 这幅作品长约9英尺，是亨利·兰金·普尔模仿猎狐场景，代入旧莱姆镇艺术区成员所作。Browne was a successful artist throughout her life. She won numerous awards, such as a medal at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and exhibited in many important shows, including the Paris Salon. Art critics raved about her. She married Frederick Van Wyck in 1918. Van Wyck wrote a book called Recollections of an Old New Yorker in 1932, and Matilda did all the illustrations.布朗一生成绩斐然，她获奖无数，如在1893年世界哥伦布博览会上获奖；她的作品在许多重要展览中展出，包括巴黎艺术沙龙。艺术评论家对她赞不绝口。1918年她嫁给弗雷德里克·范怀克。1932年范怀克写《老纽约人的回忆》一书，所有插图都是玛蒂尔达画的。![]()
Matilda Browne, In Voorhee’s Garden, 1914, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, USA.
Even though Matilda Browne was so successful in her time, very few people know about her today. This is a more common story for female artists than one might think, and it’s always quite frustrating to hear. Art history embraces female Impressionists like Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. So, why has Browne faded into obscurity? It could be because she’s a double minority—in gender and nationality. While researching her, I found that books about female Impressionists omit her, presumably because she was American, while books about American Impressionists tend to focus on the male artists.尽管玛蒂尔达·布朗在她的时代非常成功，但如今却鲜有人知。对女性画家来说，这种情况比人们所能想见的更为普遍，而听起来总是让人唏嘘。玛丽·卡萨特和贝尔特·莫里索等印象派女画家在艺术史上留名，为什么布朗湮没无闻？可能是因为她的双重（性别和国籍）少数群体身份。在对她开展研究的过程中，我发现写印象派女画家的书忽略了她，大概因为她是美国人，而写美国印象派画家的书往往关注男性画家。Most of Browne’s works are in private collections. The Florence Griswold Museum is the best place to see her art. The museum’s 2017 Idylls of Farm and Garden was Matilda Browne’s first solo exhibition in over eighty years. It seems that this modern recognition was long overdue.布朗的大部分作品被私人收藏，弗洛伦丝·格里斯沃尔德博物馆是欣赏她作品的最佳去处。该博物馆2017年的“田园牧歌”展览是80多年来玛蒂尔达·布朗的第一次个人画展。这是现代社会对她的认可，而她似乎早该获得。