Le Duc Uberto Strozzi

Romaine Brooks, Le Duc Uberto Strozzi, 1961, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1968.18.7
Romaine Brooks, Le Duc Uberto Strozzi, 1961, oil on canvas, 45 3839 14 in. (115.299.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1968.18.7

Artwork Details

Title
Le Duc Uberto Strozzi
Date
1961
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
45 3839 14 in. (115.299.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Portrait male — Strozzi, Uberto
  • Occupation — other — aristocrat
Object Number
1968.18.7

Artwork Description

Brooks met Uberto Strozzi, a descendant of the noble Renaissance Florentine family of art collectors and patrons, while living in Italy during World War II. In 1961, at the age of eighty-seven, Brooks returned to painting after nearly thirty years to produce this final portrait of her longtime friend. The simple, monumental composition of the sitter in profile view, the nuanced gray tonalities, and delicately layered paint continue the artist's lifelong commitment to creating strong and quietly elegant portraits in a spare visual style. The sketchiness of the surface, the duke's slightly slumped pose, and the blurriness of his expression suggest a poignant mood of faded privilege, remembrance, and old age.

The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016

Works by this artist (6 items)

Lee Gatch, Study for Mural, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania Post Office, 1941, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Internal Revenue Service through the General Services Administration
, 1962.8.70
Study for Mural, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania Post Office
Date1941
oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard
Not on view
Lee Gatch, Herodiae, 1960, oil, ink and collage on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.12
Herodiae
Date1960
oil, ink and collage on canvas
Not on view
Lee Gatch, Sketch for Greenhouse, 1950, charcoal, brush and ink, and ink wash on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Max Kahn, 1995.23.3
Sketch for Greenhouse
Date1950
charcoal, brush and ink, and ink wash on paperboard
Not on view
Sketch for Greenhouse
Date1950
charcoal and ink on paperboard
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

FALL OF JERUSALEM 70 A.D.
Dateca. 1972
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view
Gene Davis, Untitled, 1956, pencil and watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Florence Coulson Davis, 2000.43.54
Untitled
Date1956
pencil and watercolor on paper
Not on view
Everett Shinn, Untitled, 1927, pencil, watercolor, and carbon pencil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Canter, 1976.92.1
Untitled
Date1927
pencil, watercolor, and carbon pencil on paperboard
Not on view
Chaim Gross, Untitled (3 female nudes), 1975, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation, 1990.45.25
Untitled (3 female nudes)
Date1975
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view