Romaine Brooks

Romaine Brooks was a prominent member of an artistic counterculture of upper-class Europeans and American expatriates in Pairs in the early 20th century. Brooks’ androgynous appearance challenged conventional ideas about how women should look and behave, and she extended this approach to many of the portraits the painted in the 1920s, which became her best known works. She worked primarily in a palette consisting of black, white, and shades of gray, sometimes including ochre, red, or umber highlights. Her reputation as an artist was established after her first exhibition in 1910, but she only painted actively unti 1930.