Piano,+Le

Date: exhibited 1910
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1968/1968.18.8_2a.jpg&max=460 width="355" height="254" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=2910"]] || Title: **Le Piano**

Artist: **Romaine Brooks** Born: Rome, Italy 1874 Died: Nice, France 1970

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 45 3/4 x 64 7/8 in. (116.2 x 164.8 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the artist

Accession: 1968.18.8 || The woman seen in this work is mysterious and pensive. She sits next to a table with strewn flowers, which like the figure are past the bloom of youth. Brooks was greatly influenced by Whistler. Her //Le Piano// appears to be a comment on the passage of time from Whistler’s //At the Piano// (1858) to her //Le Piano//. In another painting, //Renata Borgatti au Piano// (1920), Brooks directly referenced Whistler’s composition, //At The Piano//. Note the compositional changes exhibited in //Le Piano// to //@La Baronne Emile D’Erlanger// (1910) and @Chasseresse (1920). In the latter, the forms are highly simplified and the background is highly abstracted with geometric blocks of neutral colors. //La Baronne// and //Chasseresse// also depict erect, competent, and also threatening women very much in tune with the philosophy of the “new woman” at the turn of the century; their gazes say, “don’t tread on me.”
 * About the Artwork: **

Brooks was a gifted artist, who challenged the typical views of female roles in society. She was a lesbian. Brooks had a very unhappy childhood that was haunted by the instability of her brother and the eccentricities of her mother. Independently wealthy, her large fortune allowed her personal and professional freedom. She was part of the Anglo-American gay community on the Isle of Capri, Italy where she was a noted hostess. She had a three year relationship with Ida Rubenstein and a lifelong relationship with Natalie Barney, the daughter of Alice Pike Barney. Although many of her peers were creating abstract art, she held to a representational style that explores female identity. She was particularly intrigued with the role that appearances (clothes and manners) played in sexual identity.
 * About the Artist: **

Women Artists
 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
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