BP#4

Romaine Brooks
Chasseresse
1920 
Oil on canvas 
51.38 x 38.38 in. 
Collection of the Smithsonian American Museum, Gift of the artist
Exhibited in: Classical Nudes, October 17, 2014-January 4, 2015


This piece by Romaine Brooks is a more stylized painting, not so realistic nor idealized. It is very much representational, as seen depicted detail is not so much emphasized, only upon the woman's face. Her body is hidden  upon a fur coat.  Her face not in the artists direction, gives it a sense of a lost expression. She seems gentle in a way, but her facial features are very serious, until you see her eyes. Within the models eyes  is a very sad, almost dazed emotion. Her body language is stiff, sharp, and pointed. From what the artist maybe be trying to express to the viewer is that  women are not necessarily dependent upon others or men,  but naked they are to the world, not fragile, there is not sense a weak woman here. Women are not undoubtedly not as strong as men, but they do bear a sense of independence. This figure upholds vulnerability in the look in her eyes. She is still stern in her stance, she is almost rebelling within this picture. How? A strong posture, serious face, her first clenched, and her bold coat.  Berger's ideologies do apply to the painting in a way.  Berger states "(Often in the nude) a woman's body is arranged the way it is, to display it to the man looking at the picture. This picture is made to appeal to his sexuality. It has nothing to do with her sexuality. In the European tradition, the convention of not painting the hair on a woman's body helps towards the same ends. Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion"(3).  How this applies to the painting is that for starters, this woman is not entirely nude, and to what I believe her "pubic hair" her dominance is the fur coat. Romaine Brooks is not portraying a woman in a "man point of view" for she is a woman. Compared to other works of art then men portray women there is a large difference.