Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas)

Romaine Brooks, Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas), 1910, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1966.49.5
Copied Romaine Brooks, Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas), 1910, oil on canvas, 59 1⁄2 x 107 in. (151.1 x 271.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1966.49.5

Artwork Details

Title
Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas)
Artist
Date
1910
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
59 1⁄2 x 107 in. (151.1 x 271.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — flower — azalea
  • Architecture Interior — domestic — house
  • Figure female — full length
  • Figure female — nude
Object Number
1966.49.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1966.49.5

Artwork Description

Azalées Blanches was one of Brooks's first paintings of the female nude and the earliest in which she presented an openly erotic figure. The female nude was a ubiquitous subject for Brooks's male contemporaries, but in 1910 a female artist's depiction of the theme was relatively unusual. Brooks's inclusion of this frankly sexual work in her debut exhibition at Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris was a provocative gesture. Referring to this moment in her unpublished memoir, Brooks wrote, "I grasped every occasion no matter how small, to assert my independence of views." Audience members also recognized Brooks's challenge; a reviewer compared it to Édouard Manet's iconic modern nude Olympia (1863).

The Art of Romaine Brooks, 2016