Portrait de la Comtesse Anna de Noailles
Not on view
Born in Rome to American parents, Romaine Brooks worked primarily in Paris, where she was a leading member of the city’s artistic counterculture. By 1905, she established herself as a painter of women, often challenging conventional ideas around gender roles and female sexuality. In this this small but intimate portrait, Brooks depicted the French writer and poet Comtesse Anna de Noailles (1876–1933). The muted palette and silvery blue backdrop is characteristic of the artist’s early style and reveals the lasting influence of American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler. Brooks is believed to have cut this work from a larger canvas, indicating that she may have originally intended to paint a half-length or full-length portrait of the sitter. Comtesse Anna de Noailles—who sat for several artists during her lifetime, including a nearly contemporaneous portrait in marble by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (see 11.173.6)—gazes directly at the viewer and is depicted with her characteristically short dark hair, thick eyebrows, and red lipstick.
