Sunday, December 11

Romaine Brooks : Thief of Souls

self-portrait 1923

Peter a Young English Girl (1923-1924) 
La Jaquette Rouge (1910)

La France Croisée (1914)
self-portrait

L
Le Trajet (1911) 

La Baronne Emile D'Erlanger (1924)

Romain Brooks' art studio

I love biographies, specifically biographies about women and having read the biography of Natalie Barney (1887-1972) sometime last year I came away with an interest in her long term lover/companion Romaine Brooks (1887-1970). I always love how one interesting woman leads you to another & when you are reading about the culture of the left bank of France during the 1920s there is no shortage of interesting women to learn about. 

Brooks was a painter whose palette was dominated by the color gray, in1904 she travelled to St. Ives on the Cornish coast, rented a small studio, and began learning to create finer gradations of gray. I love the intensity that she creates while maintaining a certain muted flatness. You can read more about her life & work here and here. Also you can watch a film called Paris Was a Woman about the women on the left bank of France in the 1920s, or read the book.

4 comments:

Marie said...

Thank you for recommending this film, it is exactly the sort of thing I love.

Marie,

Vintagephilosophy.com

BaronessVonVintage said...

WOW. I had not heard of either! AMAZING!

Unknown said...

Love this post. PS, I think the birth dates might be incorrect. Do you me 18--? Thanks for the great post, sugar!

Rebecca said...

These paintings are so interesting, I am a big fan of grey and the part about her learning to paint finer graduations really appeals to me. Thanks for sharing.

Post a Comment

Other posts

Blog Widget by LinkWithin