A Banner Year For Romaine

Posted on by Cassandra Langer

Wishing each and every one of you Brooks fans a very happy holiday and a good New Year. Let’s lift a glass to our girl.

2015 has been a banner year for all things Romaine. After 40 plus years of on and off energy devoted to rediscovering the real Romaine Brooks my new book completely revises how the artist and woman is seen. I count myself very happy to finally see this critical biography in print. Be sure to catch our recent panel of November 12 on the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City web site.

Romaine Brooks - Book
University of Wisconsin Press

As an added bonus a spectacular show of Romaine Brooks’s work opened on my birthday, December 18,  at the Fortuny Museum in Venice, Italy. It is a groundbreaking showcasing her many faceted talents as a world class  artist, designer and stylist. All points my new book  Romaine Brooks: A Life highlights.  I am happy to report that the show has been so successful that its run has been extended past its original closing date. More good news is that the catalog is being translated from the Italian into English.

Put June 10, 2016 on your calendar, when The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. opens an exhibition of Romaine’s works from their collection. My biography will be available for purchase in their book store. So Brooks fans, let’s celebrate and keep these dates in mind for the coming year.


A Peek into Romaine Brooks’ Closet

Posted on by Cassandra Langer

Romaine Brooks – witty, cautious and brilliant.  Once you see a painting by this talented artist you will never forget it. Taking a peek into Romaine’s closet is at the heart of my book, Romaine Brooks. Contrary to inaccurate accounts written by other biographers, Romaine Brooks had a vibrant sexual and family life with two other women; Natalie Barney and Lily de Gramont. A closely guarded secret she took great pains to keep until she passed away in 1970.

This previously unsolved mystery had thrown a 40 year, dark cloak over Romaine Brooks’ life until my research slowly began to reveal the truth. Unfortunately, her closely guarded secret has made the work of refuting inaccurate accounts of her life to be one of my most difficult challenges as her 21st century biographer.

In the past, people have questioned, “Wasn’t she anti-Semitic or a fascist sympathizer?”  Providing fresh information about the loves, life and art of such a secretive and talented artist has proved especially challenging for an introvert such as myself, particularly in a public venue.  Luckily for me, Romaine Brooks had provided some pointers through her life experiences. She had an air of self-confidence and elegance as was demonstrated when she took Paris by storm in 1905. She was a master of the performative self and beautifully dressed. She was wildly in fashion among the upper classes that adored her and her elegant apartment on the right bank quickly became the talk of the town.

I can only hope to equal her performative skills.  Even so, Brooks fans that are in the New York City area can treat themselves to a fascinating free panel discussion at the Leslie Lohman Museum, 26 Wooster Street, from 6 PM to 8 PM. The panel features myself, screenwriter and translator Suzanne Stroh, and art historian James Saslow. Following the panel discussion will be a book signing and reception. For those unable to attend the discussion panel and Q & A, the event will be video recorded and available later this month on my website. It will also be found on the Leslie Lohman Museum’s website.

Romaine Brooks: A Life may be ordered from the University of Wisconsin press,  Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local book store by request.

Romaine Speaks

Posted on by Cassandra Langer

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I’ve heard her voice!

I’ve just returned from listening to a long-lost analog recording of an interview with Romaine Brooks at age 94. What a fabulous experience! It’s in French, but is being transcribed in English through the generosity of another researcher, translator Suzanne Stroh. What an incredible thrill to finally hear Romaine’s voice! I now understand why she was celebrated for her speaking voice. She spoke French with what people said was a “charming American accent”, and it is perfectly clear that despite living in Europe — mainly France and Italy for most of her adult life — she always thought and titled her drawings in English in her notebooks.

In the interview, she was asked if she’d created drawings other than those that appeared in the 1968 issue of Bizarre — an issue devoted entirely to her with essays by Paul Morand, Eduard MacAvoy, Michel Desbrueres. She responded, “I’ve drawn throughout my life.” So, folks, where are the other drawings??? We only have access to a sampling from two periods of her lifelong output. Where are the rest??? We really don’t know. Did she destroy them? What would they have looked like? Was her style consistent? Much like Frida Kahlo, Brooks is on the threshold of a total reassessment. Who knows what works may still be out there?

Treasure hunters, unite. We need to ferret out her other works.

Here you see Lily de Gramont and Natalie Barney on their honeymoon at Niagara Falls, just prior to returning to France where they united with Romaine Brooks to form the stable three-way family of choice that lasted until Lily’s death in 1954. Who knew?! (Romaine Brooks: A Life tells all!)

FYI: I will be on a panel at the International Biography Conference to present new information on Romaine Brooks that will turn Romaine Brooks studies on their head.

The Accidental Biographer: Beware!

Posted on by Cassandra Langer
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Romaine Brooks well knew what having the impeders drag you down felt like, and she imagined it here for all of us to identify with when we encounter our own impeders!

I never started out as a biographer. It was always about how I took in the picture before me, tasted it, rolled it over, let it sit in my sensorium, and savored all its flavor — appreciating the artistry of the maker; composition, color, execution, emotions. In short, I was able to follow along when an artist grabbed me with just one look and took me to places both familiar and strange.

From childhood, even as a small toddler, I’ve had this uncanny ability to experience words and pictures in the most intense way. It was one of these experiences (as I write in my introduction to Romaine Brooks: A Life (forthcoming from University of Wisconsin press in 2015) that set me on a 44-year course of investigation. I left me with a need to know so intense that throughout my academic and teaching career I felt compelled to follow the elusive trail that Beatrice Romaine Goddard (Brooks) had forged.

An Intriguing Subject…and Audience

It began with the first scholarly/critical article to be written in America on Brooks’s intriguing, chromatically painted portraits. I followed up with a lecture that garnered the attendance of an ACLU representative from Florida International University. This was, after all, the early 1970s, and I was  an out lesbian dealing with an out subject and painter of lesbian and gay subjects. Over the years I continued to write critical commentary on any Brooks articles and/or essays that appeared.

Finally, in 2000, after reading yet another essay sidestepping the problems of Brooks’s complicated relationship with D’Annunzio and right-wing conservative politics of the period, my frustrations propelled me to deal with the issue head-on. I then published two more articles to set the framework for an in-depth look at Romaine’s fascist aesthetics in my new book.

Thus, the Accidental Biographer

In order to unearth the truth of Romaine’s life, I had to become an accidental biographer. That determination set me on a course I never intended to take. If you truly want to understand the real nature of the biographer’s art, you’ll have to read my introduction as to how this studio/art history/philosophy student was compelled to become a reluctant biographer by default.