Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who often drew women in men’s clothing. She painted women from women's point of view, not from how men saw women. The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., has collected half of her paintings. Experts say she is as important as Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein to how we think about gender.
Childhood
Brooks was born in Rome. Her parents were rich Americans. She had an unhappy childhood. Her mother took care of her sick brother, and often did not take care of Brooks. Her mother believed Brooks was possessed by demons.
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.
Her grandfather found her and sent her to school. Students and teachers found her drawings of ghosts and monsters scary.
Education
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.
Brooks studied painting in Italy from 1896 to 1899. She then set up an art studio on the Island of Capri. She learned more about art when she was 24 at the Scuola Nazionale, a school in Rome. Many students were mean to her there. In 1900, she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris.
Relationships
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. 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. 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. She met Natalie Clifford Barney, who would be her lover for a long time.
Art and Works
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. 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. In 1930, Brooks wrote a book about herself called “No Pleasant Memories,” but no one ever saw it.
In 1915 Brooks had a fundraiser exhibit to raise money for the Red Cross. To thank her, the French government gave her the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
Notability
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.
