Romaine Brooks

Chronology derived from Romaine Brooks: In the National Museum of American Art by Adelyn D. Breeskin, 1986. Published by the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. and The Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks. Whitney Chadwick, 2000. Chameleon Books, Inc. University of California Press. Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London.


Chronology
1874 Romaine Brooks is born in Rome while her mother, Ella Waterman is traveling. Her father is Major Harry Goddard of Philadelphia. Her parents separate shortly after. "The Watermans were enterprising adventurers who made a fortune mining, while the Goddards wanderlust and, later, Brooks expatriate lifestyle, but it provided little in the way of emotional security." (Chadwick, page 11)
1880-
1881		 At age six she is left with her mother’s washerwoman in New York for about six months while mother and brother, St. Mar, travel to Europe. She sells newspapers on the street to help financially. She makes some of her first drawings. She accounts this period of her life in an unpublished memoir "No Pleasant Memories" written in the 1930’s.
1881 Brooks is sent to stay with an aunt in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
1881-
1886		 She attends St. Catherine’s Hall, an Episcopal boarding school in New Jersey.
1886 She leaves the U.S. to join her mother and St. Mar in London. She travels around the continent staying at various villas, mostly along the Riviera and Northern Italy.
1887 Brooks attends an Italian convent school for about two years. She develops pneumonia and is sent to the Riviera with her mother.
1891-
1895		 Attends Mademoiselle Bertin’s Private Finishing School in Geneva, Switzerland.
1895-
1896		 She studies voice with M. and Mme. Bidout in Neuilly.
1896-
1897		 Escapes to Paris. Is given a monthly allowance of 300 francs from her mother.
Studies voice, specializing in operettas. Summers in the country outside Paris.
1897-
1898		 Spends winter in Paris. Continues her voice lessons.
1898 At age 24, decides to concentrate on painting. Moves to Rome and finds a studio on the Via Sistina. Attends the State School briefly, then changes to La Scoula Nazionale. Studies evenings at the Circolo Artistico. Summers in Capri; rents an old chapel for 20 lire a month. St. Mar dies and Romaine goes to Nice. "The fact that she was the only woman in the class speaks volumes about her determination. The presence of other young women in evening classes at the Circolo Artistico provided some relief from the harassment she endured from her fellow (male) students at the art school." (W.C., page 12)
1899 Returns to Paris with money from sale of a painting. Attends the Academie Colarossi. Contracts pneumonia and spends spring and summer recuperating in Gruyere, Switzerland.
1900-
1901		 Returns to Paris in early fall and then leaves for Capri.
1898 St. Mar dies, and Romaine goes to Nice.
1902 Mother dies of diabetes. Returns to villa Grimaldi, near Menton. Marries John
Ellingham Brooks, a pianist and dilettante; the marriage is short lived. Closes studio in Capri.
1904 Moves to London and finds a studio on Tite street near Chelsea. "a fashionable neighborhood favored by successful artists"
Spends time in St. Ives on the Cornish coast, then returns to London. Becomes friends with painters Charles Condor and Augustus John.
"absorbed the work of symbolist and decadent poets and artists such as Walter Sickert, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, and James Abbot McNeill Whistler."
1904 Moves to London and finds a studio on Tite street near Chelsea …"a fashionable neighborhood favored by successful artists." Spends time in St. Ives on the Cornish coast, then returns to London. Becomes friends with painters Charles Condor and Augustus John. "… absorbed the work of symbolist and decadent poets and artists such as Walter Sickert, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, and James Abbot McNeill Whistler." (W.C., page 17)
At age 31 returns to Paris; lives on the Avenue Trocadero (now 20 Avenue du President Wilson). Rents a large studio at Ateliers de Carlous Duran on the left bank. Studies with Gustave Courtois. Concentrates on her painting the next five years.
1910 Meets Gabriele d’ Annunzio. Annunzio was "credited with laying the foundations for the development of fascism in Italy, she found the spiritual companion who became her model for the modern hero."
Tableaux par Romaine Brooks (first solo exhibition), Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 2-18 May. "She followed Whistler’s earlier example and redecorated the gallery, covering the red plush walls with a simple beige fabric that set off the muted tonalities of her paintings." (W.C., page 18)
1911 Sends complete Galeries Durand-Ruel show plus three new paintings-
L’Archer masque, Sur la Terrasse (the balcony), and La Femme couchee (probably La Trajet)- to Goupil Gallery, London, in June. Summers in Le Moulleau near Arcachon. Creates some preparatory sketches for her portrait of d’Annunzio.
1911-
1912		 Spends winter in Paris. Summers in Saint-Jean-de-luz and paints portrait of d’Annunzio. Paints At the Edge of the Sea [self portrait] "which belongs with a series of paintings of isolated, wind-swept female figures set against effects of stormy skies, ruined landscapes, and rolling seas, presents a female image of solitude, resistance, and spiritual exile." (W.C., page 23)
1913 Invited to send Gabriele d’Annunzio, le poete en exil, Princesse Lucien Murat. The Balcony, and La Jaquette rouge to the Prima Espizionne Internationale d’arte della Secessione,Rome, in April.
1914 Musee du Luxembourg acquires Gabriele d’Annunzio, le poete en exil. Meets with Jean Cocteau and paints his portrait; also paints Ida Rubenstein. Paints La France Croisee, which is later shown at Georges Bernheim’s in July 1915, a part of a benefit exhibition for the Red Cross. "The Cross of France marks the true beginning of a group of paintings of heroic femininity" (W.C., page 27)
1915 At age 41, meets Natalie Barney, "the woman who would be her closest companion for the remainder of her life." (W.C., page 28)
1916 Leaves to Venice for a studio in the Zattere, which d’Annunzio found for her. Paints second portrait of d’Annunzio (Il Commandante).
1919 Exhibits The Balcony in the Exposition Americaine at the Musee de Luxembourg, October-November.
1920 Exhibits Renata Borgatti au Piano and La Chevre Blanche (Elsie de Wolfe)
in the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, April-May. Receives the Croix de la Legion d’Honneur in October.
1922 Exhibits Miss Natalie Barney, l’Amazone in the salon de la Societe Nationale Des Beaux-Arts, 13 April-30 June.
1923 Exhibits Self-Portrait and Boreale (Chasseresse) in the Salon de la Societe des
Artistes Independants, spring.
1924 Solo exhibition, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 20 March-3 April.
L’Exposition de Romaine Brooks, L’ Alpine Club Gallery, London, 2-20 June;
Arranged and patronized by La Baronne Emile d’Erlanger. Romaine Brooks, Wildestein Galleries, New York, 20 November- 31December. Visits New York.
Group exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 22 December 1925-26 January 1926.
1930 Exhibits La Chevre blanche (Elsie de Wolfe) at Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris,
October; exhibition of American Artists.
1931 L’Exposition de Dessins de Romaine Brooks (101 drawings), Galerie Th. Briant,
Paris, 15-31 May.
1935 Original Drawings by Romaine Brooks (50 drawings), Arts Club of Chicago,
11-31 January.
1935-
1936		 Rents studio in Carnegie Hall, New York. Paints portraits of Carl Van Vechten and Muriel Draper.
1938 Gabriele D’Annunzio dies (Brooks is 64 years old)
1939 Exhibits portrait of Jean Cocteau in L’Exposition du cinquantenaire de la Tout Eiffel, Palais de Chaillot, summer. Outbreak of World War II; Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks live at Beauvallon near St. Tropez.
1940 Purchases the Villa Sant-Agnese in Florence, Italy (which remains her residence until the mid 1950’s when she buys the smaller Villa Gaia in Fiesole). Natalie Barney joins her in Florence.
1940-
1945		 Writes her memoirs, A War Interlude or On the Hills of Florence During the War.
1961 Paints her last portrait at the age of 87, a Florentine acquaintance, Le Duc Uberto Strozzi.
1967 Moves to her studio apartment in Nice, France.
1970 Dies December 7 in Nice at the age of 96.