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SOME ENGLISH LADY ARTISTS.
By ARTHUR FISH.

NEVER has the position of woman in the
field of English art been so strong as it is to-day. There, as in other branches of work, she is competing closely with man; in some instances equalling him; in a few, outdistancing him.
As painter, sculptor, and decorative artist, she is steadily asserting her power. Each year’s Royal Academy Exhibition proves the development of her capability, versatility and originality, which combine to add yet another protest against her exclusion from the privileges of membership of the premier art institution of the country.
It is curious that in spite of the fact that women - students carry off a large percentage of the prizes from the Academy Schools each year, and that women-artists contribute largely towards the success of the annual exhibitions at Burlington House,
the members continue to fail to recognise the right of women to be represented in the Academy itself. Only once since the days of Angelica Kauffmann and Mary Moser has a woman stood even a chance of election—when Lady Butler fell short of an Associateship
by one vote. 
This artist has, perhaps, the widest popular repute of any of the women-painters of England. Her phenomenal success in 1874 with “The Roll Call “—or, to give it its official title, “Calling the Roll after an Engagement in the Crimea “—was no nine days’ wonder; it secured her a reputation which, strengthened as it has been by succeeding works, has made her name familiar throughout the length and breadth of the land. Never before, nor since, has such a sensation been