Apologies if you’ve already seen this post, via email. It was accidently sent out yesterday. If you’re reading it in the app, it should be new for you.
I’m changing the format of the newsletter to posts with some explanatory writing—like this one—rather than pure images. I’ve stopped posting on Substack Notes (Substack’s short-form, X-like product), which means I have more time to dedicate to newsletters. It’s a trade-off. I have a second newsletter which I’ve not been writing. It’s called A27. It’s a long-form art newsletter, with an aim of having posts in the thousands of words. I’ve decided to focus on longer-form writing over shorter forms. I’m happier doing more in-depth work and I hope, ultimately, people will find it more useful.
Chris
The painting below: Self-Portrait, 1923 is Romaine Brooks’ most famous painting. It shows a number of elements which are common to her work.
It’s a portrait, and she was a portrait artist.
The colours are very grey.
It depicts sexuality, gender, and identity.
After Romaine’s mother and brother died, she inherited a large sum of money ($9 million). This allowed her the freedom to paint and also the freedom to paint whatever she liked, without the need to please buyers. The result was an oeuvre that was resistant to patriarchal representations of females in art.
Romaine’s sexuality plays a role in her art. Her lovers modelled for her, and she painted them in ways that someone pandering to the market would not have been able to have done. She understood that women in art had most often been portrayed as objects rather than active subjects. What follows are paintings that illustrate these themes.