, who were her associates,
materially aided her by their encouragement. She began the study of
drawing at the age of thirty, and her first attempt in oils was made
seven years later. Beginning with single twigs and working over them
patiently she at length painted whole trees, and later animals. She came
to know the peculiarities of nearly all native trees.

She built a studio in the woods of Scheveningen, and there developed her
characteristics--close observation and careful reproduction of details.

In the summer of 1872 M. and Mme. Mesdag went to Friesland and Drenthe,
where they made numerous sketches of the heath, sheep, farmhouses, and
the people in their quaint costumes. One of Mme. Mesdag's pictures,
afterward exhibited at Berlin, is thus described: "On this canvas we see
the moon, just as she has broken through a gray cloud, spreading her
silvery sheen over the sleepy land; in the centre we are given a
sheep-fold, at the door of which a flock of sheep are jostling and
pushing each other, all eager to enter their place of rest. The wave-like
movement of these animals is particularly graceful and cleverly done. A
little shepherdess is guiding them, as anxious to get them in as they are
to enter, for this means the end of her day's work. Her worn-out blue
petticoat is lighted up by a moonbeam; in her hand she appears to have a
hoe. It is a most harmonious picture; every line is in accord with its
neighbor."

While residing in Brussels these two artists began to collect works of
art for what is now known as the Mesdag Museum. In 1887 a wing was added
to their house to accommodate their increasing treasures, which include
especially good examples of modern French painting, pottery, tapestry,
etc.

In 1889 an exhibition of the works of these painters was held. Here
convincing proof was given of Mme. Mesdag's accuracy, originality of
interpretation, and her skill in the use of color.

<b>MOeLLER, AGNES SLOTT, OR SLOTT-MOeLLER, AGNES.</b> This artist follows the
young romantic movement in Denmark. She has embodied in her work a modern
comprehension of old legends. The landscape and people of her native
land seem to her as eminently suitable motives, and these realities she
renders in the spirit of a by-gone age--that of the national heroes of
the sagas and epics of the country, or the lyric atmosphere of the
folk-songs.

She may depict these conceptions, full of feeling, in the dull colors of
the North, or i