<b>SERRANO Y BARTOLOMÉ, JOAQUINA.</b> Born in Fermoselle. Pupil in Madrid of Juan Espalter, of the School of Arts and Crafts, and of the School of Painting. She sent four pictures to the Exposition of 1876 in Madrid: the portrait of a young woman, a still-life subject, a bunch of grapes, and a "Peasant Girl"--the last two are in the Museum of Murcia. In 1878 she sent "A Kitchen Maid on Saturday," a study, a flower piece, and two still-life pictures; and in 1881 two portraits and some landscapes. Her portrait of the painter Fortuny, which belongs to the Society of Authors and Artists, gained her a membership in that Society. Two other excellent portraits are those of her teacher, Espalter, and General Trillo.
<b>SEWELL, AMANDA BREWSTER.</b> Bronze medal, Chicago, 1893; bronze medal, Buffalo, 1901; silver medal, Charleston; Clarke prize, Academy of Design, 1903. Member of the Woman's Art Club and an associate of National Academy of Design. Born in Northern New York. Pupil at Cooper Union under Douglas Volk and R. Swain Gifford, and of Art Students' League under William Chase and William Sartain; also of Julian's Academy under Tony Robert Fleury and Bouguereau, and of Carolus Duran.
Mrs. Sewell's "A Village Incident" is owned by the Philadelphia Social Art Club; "Where Roses Bloom" is in the Boston Art Club; portrait of Professor William R. Ware is in the Library of Columbia University. Her portrait of Amalia Küssner will be exhibited and published.
Mrs. Sewell is the first woman to take the Clarke prize. She has been a careful student in the arrangement of portraits in order to make attractive pictures as well as satisfactory likenesses. Of the pictures she exhibited at the Academy of Design, winter of 1903, Charles H. Caffin writes:
"The portrait of Mrs. Charles S. Dodge, by Mrs. A. Brewster Sewell, is the finest example in the exhibition of pictorial treatment, the lady being wrapped in a brown velvet cloak with broad edges of brown fur, and seated before a background of dark foliage. It is a most distinguished canvas, though one may object to the too obvious affectation of the arrangement of the hands and of the gesture of the head--features which will jar upon many eyes and detract from the general handsomeness. The same lady sends a large classical subject, the 'Sacred Hecatomb,' to which the Clarke prize was awarded. It represents a forest scene lit by slanting sunlight, through which winds a string of bulls, the foremost accompanied by a band of youths and maidens with dance and song. The light effects are managed very skilfully and with convincing truth, and the figures are free and animated in movement, though the flesh tints are scarcely agreeable. It is a decorative composition that might be fitly placed in a large hall in some country house."
