Woman of Intrigue

Dear Joan of Art,
Some years ago I visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum and saw Romaine Brooks's Self-Portrait. The image has stayed with me, though I know nothing about the painting or the artist. Can you help?

Dear Visitor,

The painting is stark and startling, and many museum visitors are drawn to it. The following descriptive text comes from Treasures of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1985):

"The gray solitude of the paintings of Romaine Brooks seems, above all, a reflection of a childhood and adolescence devoid of love and marked by loss. She scarcely knew her father; she lived with her mother in an endless succession of Continental hotels, or alone in convent and boarding schools; her brother was insane and died young.

"At the time Self-Portrait was painted, Brooks was forty-nine, an established portraitist, and a prominent member of Parisian society. Her pose is self-contained, rigid, and proud but guarded. The ribbon of the Legion of Honor, a tiny strip of red adorning her lapel in the precise center of the painting, proclaims her achievements and her character, for it is the only strong note of color in the painting.

"Brooks was in revolt against the parti-colored, multi-patterned Victorian aesthetic and in love with the 'mystery of grays,' as she put it. Around 1911, her Paris town house was entirely decorated in grays, with black accents and the slightest hint of color—just like this portrait."

I hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
Joan of Art

Source: William Kloss. Treasures from the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985).

Pictured: Romaine Brooks, 1874 Italy–1970 France, Self-Portrait, 1923, oil, 46 1/4 x 26 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist.