Romaine Brooks · lying nudes

**Romaine Brooks ~** Le Trajet (The Path, The Crossing, aka The Dead Woman), ca. 1911, oil on canvas (Model: Ida Rubinstein) | SAAM-1968.18.3_1

Brooks painted Ida Rubinstein more often than any other subject; for Brooks, Rubinstein’s “fragile and androgynous beauty”represented an aesthetic ideal. The earliest of these paintings are a series of allegorical nudes. In The Crossing (also exhibited as The Dead Woman), Rubinstein appears to be in a coma, stretched out on a white bed or bier against a black void variously interpreted as death or floating in spent sexual satisfaction on Brooks’ symbolic wing. (x)

**Romaine Brooks ~** Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas), 1910, oil on canvas | SAAM-1966.49.5_2

In 1910, Brooks had her first solo show at the Gallery Durand-Ruel, displaying thirteen paintings, almost all of women or young girls. Among them, Brooks included two nude studies: The Red Jacket, and White Azaleas, a nude study of a woman reclining on a couch. Contemporary reviews compared it to Francisco de Goya’s La maja desnuda and Édouard Manet’s Olympia. But, unlike the women in those paintings, the subject of White Azaleas looks away from the viewer; in the background above her is a series of Japanese prints. (x)

**Romaine Brooks ~** Weeping Venus, 1917 . Oil on canvas. Musées de Poitiers | src Frieze from Palazzo Fortuny’s winter exhibition, ‘Romaine Brooks: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs’

Photograph of nude taken or commissioned by Romaine Brooks (undated) | src Arte senza confini : Romaine Brooks. Dipinti, disegni, fotografie

Romaine Brooks remained aloof from all artistic trends, painting, in her palette of black, white, and grays, haunting portraits of the blessed and the troubled, of socialites and intellectuals. She moved in brilliant circles and, while resisting companionship, was the object of violent passions. […] Her story and her work reveal much about bohemian life in the early twentieth century.

Elizabeth Chew Women Artists at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (x)

Describing herself as a lapidée (literally: a victim of stoning, an outsider), at the height of her career Brooks was prominent in the intellectual and cosmopolitan community that moved between Capri, Paris and London in the early 1900s. Brook’s best known images depict androgynous women in desolate landscapes or monochromatic interiors, their protagonists undeterred by our presence, either staring relentlessly at us or gazing nonchalantly past. Her subjects of this time include anonymous models, aristocrats, lovers and friends, all portrayed in her signature ashen palette. Rejecting contemporary artistic trends such as cubism and fauvism, Brooks favoured the symbolist and aesthetic movements of the 19th century, particularly the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Her ability to capture the expression, glance or gaze of her sitters prompted critic Robert de Montesquiou to describe her, in 1912, as ‘the thief of souls’. quoted from Frieze

Romaine Brooks · Portraits

Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874-1970), known as Romaine Brooks ~ Au bord de la mer (At the seaside), 1914. Oil on canvas. | Franco-American museum of the Blérancourt castle via wikimedia commons — Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874-1970), known as **Romaine Brooks** ~ Au bord de la mer (At the seaside), 1914. Oil on canvas. | Franco-American museum of the Blérancourt castle via wikimedia commons

Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874-1970), known as Romaine Brooks ~ Au bord de la mer (Autoportrait), 1914. Oil on canvas.

**Romaine Brooks ~** Peter (A Young English Girl), 1923-1924, oil on canvas SAAM-1970.70_2

Peter depicts British painter Hannah Gluckstein, heir to a catering empire who adopted the genderless professional name Gluck in the early 1920s. By the time Brooks met her at one of Natalie Barney’s literary salons, Gluckstein had begun using the name Peyter (Peter) Gluck. She unapologetically wore men’s suits and fedoras, clearly asserting the association between androgyny and lesbian identity. Brooks’s carefully nuanced palette and quiet, empty space produced an image of refined and austere modernity. ~ The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

**Romaine Brooks** (1874-1970) ~ Self-Portrait, 1923. Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum

With this self-portrait, Brooks envisioned her modernity as an artist and a person. The modulated shades of gray, stylized forms, and psychological gravity exemplify her deep commitment to aesthetic principles. The shaded, direct gaze conveys a commanding and confident presence, an attitude more typically associated with her male counterparts. The riding hat and coat and masculine tailoring recall conventions of aristocratic portraiture while also evoking a chic androgyny associated with the post–World War I “new woman.” Brooks’s fashion choices also enabled upper-class lesbians to identify and acknowledge one another. ~ The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

**Romaine Brooks ~** Una, Lady Troubridge, 1924, oil on canvas SAAM-1966.49.6_2

Una Troubridge was a British aristocrat, literary translator, and the lover of Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 pathbreaking lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. Troubridge appears with a sense of formality and importance typical of upper-class portraiture, but with the sitter’s prized dachshunds in place of the traditional hunting dog. Troubridge’s impeccably tailored clothing, cravat, and bobbed hair convey the fashionable and daring androgyny associated with the so-called new woman. Her monocle suggested multiple symbolic associations to contemporary British audiences: it alluded to Troubridge’s upper-class status, her Englishness, her sense of rebellion, and possibly her lesbian identity. ~ The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

**Romaine Brooks ~** La France Croisée, 1914, oil on canvas SAAM-1970.69_2

In La France Croisée, Brooks voiced her opposition to World War I and raised money for the Red Cross and French relief organizations. Ida Rubinstein was the model for this heroic figure posed in a nurse’s uniform, with cross emblazoned against her dark cloak, against a windswept landscape outside the burning city of Ypres. This symbolic portrait of a valiant France was exhibited in 1915 at the Bernheim Gallery in Paris, along with four accompanying sonnets written by Gabriele D’Annunzio. The gallery offered reproductions for sale as a benefit to the Red Cross. For her contributions to the war effort, the French government awarded Brooks the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1920. This award is visible as the bright red spot on Brooks’s lapel in her 1923 Self-Portrait. ~ The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

**Romaine Brooks ~** Ida Rubinstein, 1917, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Brooks met Russian dancer and arts patron Ida Rubinstein in Paris after Rubinstein’s first performance as the title character in Gabriele D’Annunzio’s play The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. Rubinstein was already well known for her refined beauty and expressive gestures; she secured her reputation as a daring performer by starring as the male saint in this boundary-pushing show that combined religious history, androgyny, and erotic narrative. Brooks found her ideal — and her artistic inspiration — in the tall, lithe, sensuous Rubinstein, who modeled for many sketches, paintings, and photographs Brooks produced during their relationship, from 1911 to 1914. In her autobiographical manuscript, “No Pleasant Memories,” Brooks said the inspiration for this portrait came as the two women walked through the Bois de Boulogne on a cold winter morning. ~ The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

All quotations and images (except n. 1 & 2) are from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (x)

Rubinstein par Wegener

**Otto Wegener ~** Ida Rubinstein en Cléopâtre. Paris, 1909 | Drouot & Daguerre
Grande épreuve agentique d’exposition avec nombreuses retouches à la gouache par l’artiste au niveau du visage, des yeux et des cheveux, signature au crayon sur le carton de montage.

Paris, 1909. Serge Diaghilev engage Ida Rubinstein dans les Ballets russes pour le rôle-titre de Cléopâtre, à l’opéra
Garnier. Cette interprétation est remarquée, ainsi que le nez de la diva.
Les costumes sont signés Léon Bakst et le final inspire le Souvenir de la saison d’Opéra Russe 1909 du peintre Kees van Dongen. Nijinski danse sa première saison des Ballets russes, dans le rôle d’un esclave peu vêtu, éblouissant le public parisien.

From : Otto Portraits : Daguerre & Drouot

Paris, 1909. Serge Diaghilev engages Ida Rubinstein in the Ballets Russes for the title role of Cleopatra, at the opera
Garnier. This interpretation is noticed, as well as the nose of the diva.
The costumes are by Léon Bakst and the finale inspires the Souvenir de la saison d’Opéra Russe 1909 by the painter Kees van Dongen. Nijinsky danced his first season of the Ballets Russes, in the role of a scantily dressed slave, dazzling the Parisian audiences.

**Otto Wegener ~** Ida Rubinstein dans une robe de Léon Bakst. Paris, 1909. | Drouot & Daguerre
Grande épreuve d’exposition à la gomme bichromatée, signée au crayon dans l’angle supérieur droit de l’épreuve.

Portrait dynamique : Ida Rubinstein dans un costume pour Cléopâtre, ballet en un acte, argument d’après Pouchkine.

**Otto Wegener ~** Ida Rubinstein en Hélène de Sparte. Paris, mai 1912.
Épreuve d’exposition à la gomme bichromatée, signée à la gouache blanche. | Drouot & Daguerre

Remarquables décors et costumes de Léon Bakst, pour la première au théâtre du Châtelet.

**Otto Wegener ~** Ida Rubinstein, La Pisanelle ou la Mort Parfumée, 1912. | Drouot & Daguerre
Grande épreuve argentique d’exposition sur papier mat montée sur carton gris, signature au crayon “Otto Paris”

“Le 13 juin 1913 est créée au théâtre du Châtelet à Paris une œuvre rutilante et hybride : la Pisanelle ou la Mort parfumée, texte français du dramaturge italien Gabriele d’Annunzio. La participation russe est prépondérante : Lev Bakst pour le décor, Ida Rubinstein dans le rôle principal, Vsevolod Meyerhold pour la mise en scène.
La richissime actrice est la commanditaire du spectacle dont la chaude volupté répond à ses vœux. Dans cette œuvre, D’Annunzio a voulu faire se mesurer latinité et orientalisme.
Les circonstances qui ont procédé à la création de la pièce dans l’atmosphère survoltée d’une vie artistique dominée par les Ballets russes…”
Gérard Abensour, Monde Russe, 2007. From : Otto Portraits : Daguerre & Drouot

“On June 13, 1913, a gleaming and hybrid work was created at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris: La Pisanelle ou la Mort parfumée, a French text by the Italian playwright Gabriele d’Annunzio. The Russian participation is preponderant: Lev Bakst for the decor, Ida Rubinstein in the main role, Vsevolod Meyerhold for the staging.
The wealthy actress is the sponsor of the show marked by her fervent voluptuousness. In his work, D’Annunzio wanted to present Latinism and Orientalism into balance.
The circumstances that led to the creation of the piece in the charged atmosphere of an artistic life dominated by the Ballets Russes…”
Gérard Abensour, Monde Russe, 2007.

All the the photographs and texts in this post had been retrieved from the catalogue of this auction :

Otto Portraits. Un fonds d’atelier photographique est retrouvé intact après cent ans d’oubli. Le studio du portraitiste Otto, place de la Madeleine, accueillait le Tout-Paris de la Belle Époque. Otto et ses fils y menaient grand train.

Vente aux enchères ‘Photographies par Otto Wegener (1849-1924)’ à Hôtel de vente Drouot le 8 novembre 2018 – Daguerre & Drouot