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ROMAINE BROOKS

Although an American, Madame Romaine Brooks has spent most of her life in France and Italy. Her art studies were pursued chiefly in Rome and Paris. In the latter city most of her work has been done and shown either in well-known galleries like Charpentier or Durand-Ruel or at the Salon Nationale. Four of her most famous canvases now hang in the Luxembourg Gallery--a rare honor for an American artist, and more especially for a woman artist--and in recognition of her eminent artistic worth she was decorated by the French government with the Legion d'Honneur. For many years Romaine Brooks specialized in portrait painting and her portrayals of such personalities as Gabriele D'Annunzio, Paul Morand, Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre, Jean Cocteau, Ida Rubenstein, etc. have won great critical acclaim. It was the portrait of Ida Rubenstein the famous dancer which inspired D'Annunzio to write his "Poeme en trois Sonnets." Romaine Brooks has now turned from portrait painting for a while to enter a domain of fantasy all her own. For some time past, in the intervals of writing her memoirs, she has been doing line drawings. These are stamped with as strong a personality as were her portraits and cannot very easily be classified. The artist herself defines them hand written These drawing should be read. They evolve from the subconscious without premeditation they aspire to a maximum of expression with a minimum of means. Whether inspired by laughter, philosophy, sadness or death these introspective patterns are each comprised within the inevitable encircling line. But the surety of outline and apparent freedom from technique are the unconscious evolution from a more material and direct form of art. R.B.