in her hand,
but who, by dint of 'self,' now stands amongst the foremost of her
profession. It was chance that led Miss Ries to the brush, and another
chance which led her to abandon the brush for the chisel. Five years ago
she was awarded the Carl Ludwig gold medal for her 'Lucifer,' and at the
last Paris Exhibition she gained the gold medal for her 'Unbesiegbaren'
(The Unconquerable).

"Miss Ries was born and educated in Moscow, but Vienna is the city of her
adoption. She first studied painting at the Moscow Academy, her work
there showing great breadth of character and power of delineation. At the
yearly Exhibition in Moscow, held some five months after she had entered
as a student, she took the gold medal for her 'Portrait of a Russian
Peasant.' She then abandoned painting for sculpture, and one month later
gained the highest commendations for a bust of 'Ariadne.' She then began
to study the plastic art from life. Dissatisfied with herself, although
her 'Somnambulist' gained a prize, Miss Ries left Moscow for Paris, but
on her way stayed in Vienna, studying under Professor Hellmer. One year
later, at the Vienna Spring Exhibition, she exhibited her 'Die Hexe.'
Here is no traditional witch, though the broomstick on which she will
ride through the air is _en evidence_. She is a demoniac being, knowing
her own power, and full of devilish instinct. The marble is full of life,
and one seems to feel the warmth of her delicate, powerfully chiselled,
though soft and pliable limbs."

"'Die Unbesiegbaren' is a most powerful work, and stood out in the midst
of the sculpture at Paris in 1900 with the prominence imparted by unusual
power in the perception of the _whole_ of a subject and the skill to
render the perception so that others realize its full meaning. There are
four figures in this group--men drawing a heavy freight boat along the
shore by means of a towline passed round their bodies, on which they
throw their weight in such a way that their legs, pressed together, lose
their outline--except in the case of the leader--and are as a mass of
power. They also pull on the line with their hands. The leader bends over
the rope until he looks down; the man behind him raises his head and
looks up with an appealing expression; the two others behind are exerting
all their force in pulling on the rope, but have twisted the upper part
of the body in order to look behind and watch the progress of their great
burden. There is not th