Romaine Brooks

Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks, circa 1894
Born	Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874-05-01)May 1, 1874 Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died	December 7, 1970(1970-12-07) (aged 96) Nice, France
Nationality	American

Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who often drew women in men’s clothing.^[1] She painted women from women's point of view, not from how men saw women.^[2] The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., has collected half of her paintings.^[2] Experts say she is as important as Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein to how we think about gender.^[2]

Brooks was born in Rome.^[2] Her parents were rich Americans.^[1][2] She had an unhappy childhood.^[1] Her mother took care of her sick brother, and often did not take care of Brooks.^[3] Her mother believed Brooks was possessed by demons. ^[2][3]

Her mother left Europe with her son, and a poor but kind laundry woman took care of Brooks. Her mother did not let her draw, but the laundry woman did. ^[3]

Her grandfather found her and sent her to school. Students and teachers found her drawings of ghosts and monsters scary. ^[3]

When she was 14, she was sent to a school in Italy, where she was so unhappy she tried to kill herself. Her mother sent her to a school to learn manners in Switzerland, where she was very good at art and music. She became independent when she was 21. ^[3]

Brooks studied painting in Italy from 1896 to 1899. She then set up an art studio on the Island of Capri. ^[3] She learned more about art when she was 24 at the Scuola Nazionale, a school in Rome. Many students were mean to her there. ^[3] In 1900, she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. ^[3]

Brooks did not want money from her mother, and wanted to be independent. She lost a lot of her money, so her sister Maya gave her some money.^[3] Brooks gave birth to her daughter in 1897, but gave her daughter to a school because she could not take care of her. She wanted to come back later for her baby. ^[3] After five years, the school told her the baby died 3 months after it was born. She had a short marriage with John Ellingham Brooks in 1902.^[1][2] She met Natalie Clifford Barney, who would be her lover for a long time.^[3]

Her art was shown in the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris, and she became an artist. Some of her famous paintings are Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas) and La France Croisée.^[1] Her art style is like James McNeil Whistler’s, whose art she liked. Her paintings were often grey, whiter and black, with a little bit of colors like red, umber or ochre. She did not do things other artists were doing, different from Pablo Picasso, another artist. ^[1] In 1930, Brooks wrote a book about herself called “No Pleasant Memories,” but no one ever saw it. ^[1]

In 1915 Brooks had a fundraiser exhibit to raise money for the Red Cross.^[2] To thank her, the French government gave her the Cross of the Legion of Honor.^[2]

Today, her art still has a result on others. She lived 100 years ago, but it is interesting to see how she showed things people did not talk about a lot in her paintings. ^[2]