Romaine Brooks and the Relationship Between Body Size and Femininity
Romaine Brooks was a female artist based in Paris before, and during, the interwar period who sought to challenge the masculine generated concept of what visually defined femininity. Her interest in depicting the female nude allowed her to transgress into a space previously reserved for men, as the female nude was traditionally an object of desire for the male gaze. She sought to subvert this norm by depicting an object of male desire from the female perspective, Brooks challenges the concept of what Rosemary Betterton determined as “the active desiring agents” using the female body for female desire (An Intimate Distance 11). This established a sense of “power and control” over the female body, that which was previously “posed and framed for [the masculine viewer]” was now intended for the female (Betterton 11). Therefore, her works depicting the female nude not only challenge the way in which femininity was visually defined, but also the intended viewer as it originated from the female gaze.
The traditional female body, as depicted in art, exhibits inherently feminine elements defining them as visually distinct from men. In The Female Nude, Lynda Nead suggests “the classical, high-art tradition of the female nude” developed an “aesthetic category [based upon] …race, size, health, age and physical ability,” thus linking “desire [and] visual representation” to the “female body” (33). In that sense, the breasts, buttocks and wide-set hips that came to define the aesthetic category of what visually defined femininity. In Looking On, Rosemary Betterton suggests that the female nude became an “icon of culture” through its prevalence in art since the Renaissance (218). Therefore, artists used the “aesthetic category” of femininity to epitomize a certain physique from the masculine perspective (Nead 33). Romaine Brooks challenges this concept of femininity as she renounced the bodily features associated with features that visually defined the feminine body in art as devised by masculine artists.
Brooks’s depictions of the female nude present the modern woman, a fashionable trope characterized by the garçonne body that emerged in the early twentieth century. In We Weren’t Modern Enough, Marsha Meskimmon defined the garçonne body as “both a physical (biological) and contemporary social type” (205). Physically, the garçonne body was “a lean figure with slender hips and small breasts,” an androgynous-like figure who could be read pre-pubescent male or female as it lacked the feminine features which traditionally defined the female appearance (Meskimmon 199). Therefore, the garçonne body cut away inherently feminine features to establish a new visual representation of femininity, thus controlling the category of femininity through the margins of the female body.
This new visual representation of femininity suggests a relation between the control and the female body. This association is similar to the modern disease termed anorexia nervosa, a disorder typically associated with emaciate young women. I do not wish to diagnose modern women and Brooks’s subject as anorexic, but rather wish to apply the discourse upon the disease to understand the relationship between bodily size and femininity. In Beyond the Body Image, Melanie Katzman and Sing Lee argue anorexia nervosa is the problematic result of “establishing self-definition and self-control” (389). Therefore, a woman who suffers from anorexia nervosa uses her body size as to establish both a sense of self and sense of control, therefore defining the self through the body. This parallels the modern woman’s adoption of the garçonne body trope which refigures the visual concept of femininity through the body size. Both the anorexic and the modern woman use bodily margins to define themselves and obtain self-control. Betterton connects femininity and food consumption, linking weight gain that results from a lack of food regulation signifies “both a loss of control and a failure of feminine identity” (An Intimate Distance 131). Therefore, both the anorexic and the modern woman use food consumption which dictates body weight as a means to obtain control over the feminine body. As a result, both the anorexic woman and the modern woman define their individual feminine identities by containing their body size.
Brooks’ first female nude Azalées Blanches (White Azaleas) (1910) depicts a modern woman reclining on a sofa, apparently aware yet indifferent to the viewer’s gaze [fig. 1]. Brooks’ figure bears no feminine conventions previously celebrated in masculine depictions of the female nude, but rather challenges the visual representation of femininity in art. Paula Birnbaum notes how Brooks’ celebration of the ideal “thin, small-breasted, and narrow-hipped woman” that which can be read as an almost “androgynous femme fatal” (Woman Artists in Interwar France 194). The concept of the “femme fatal” suggests a threatening aspect that arises when traditional conventions are challenged (Birnbaum 194). In this case, Brooks’ Azalées that that does not simply depict a woman in repose creates an image that directly challenges notions of sexual characteristics and roles through the body’s appearance.
The modern woman that Brooks presents in Azalées resembles the pose depicted traditional masculine representations of the female body, although rejects certain visual aesthetics as the model embodies the garçonne body. Noelle Claskey argues for an “interrelationship between fat and femininity” therefore associating “female sexuality…[to] fat in areas of the body” (The Female Body in Western Culture 175). In this case, “fat in areas of the body” is referring to the places which contribute to a traditionally feminine figure; the flesh adorning the breasts, buttocks and hips. Although Claskey is referring to women suffering from anorexia nervosa in her analysis, her argument applied to Brooks’ Azalées to suggests a relationship between the sitter’s body size and the concept of femininity. Therefore, the figure in Azalées exerts control over her individual concept of femininity through her body size. Likewise, Brooks’ decision to depict this body type can be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to assert control over the visual representation of femininity as determined by masculine artists in traditional works. The female figure in Azalées challenges the concept of femininity as she lacks fat in areas of the body which traditionally constitute the feminine figure. To that end, Brooks establishes control over the concept and visual representation of femininity through her depiction of the slender body.
In Brooks’s Le Trajet (1911), the nude female figure continues the theme of challenging the visual representation of femininity [fig. 2]. Similar to Azalées, Brooks depicts the modern woman, again, reclining on a sofa. In fact, the figure was her then-lover Ida Rubinstein. As a working woman, Rubinstein exemplified the concept of the modern woman, as she was an acclaimed ballet dancer which determined her slender physique. Brooks depicts Rubinstein’s long, skeletal figure in an almost sensual way as she appears indifferent to the viewer’s visual access to her naked body. This differs from Azalées as the figure was the artist’s romantic interest at the time, therefore positioning the figure as an object of female desire. In this case, Rubinstein is the object of Brooks’s desire. Joe Lucchesi argues that Brooks explores the “concepts of female identity and sexuality” through her depictions of Rubinstein, who she was sexually attracted to at the time (Amazones in the Drawing Room 74). In that sense, Brooks’ sexuality challenges the dichotomy between the viewer and the figure, positioning Rubinstein’s nude as the desirable agent from, and for, the female gaze.
Mary Russo’s The Female Grotesque explores the way in which the female body is criticised, particularly when it violates the norm. In that sense, both Brooks and her female subjects can be read as grotesque as they deliberately seek to surpass the boundaries in which men have placed them within. Brooks, as a female lesbian artist, challenges the notion of women as the object of masculine desire, as her works depict the object of her feminine desire, a woman. And moreover, the women depicted in her works oppose the masculine ideal feminine figure for a new visual appearance of femininity. Brooks’s depictions of the female body reject inherently feminine features as defined by men, therefore transgressing the boundaries of femininity through the body’s size. The bodies Brooks depict appear almost distorted in the sense that they bear no obvious feminine attributes that which traditionally visually defined femininity. By violating the masculine devised norm, both Brooks and her female figures can be read as exemplifications of the female grotesque. In a sense, the female figure that Brooks depicts cannot be contained within the masculine boundaries of femininity, thus rendering both the artist and the figure grotesque as they threaten the categories of gender and appropriate desirability.
Brooks’ depiction of Rubinstein naked challenges previous traditional depictions of the female nude which were painted for, and from, the masculine gaze. Betterton argues that Brooks’ depiction of the female nude (from the female gaze) was a deliberate attempt to “represent the sexual body in ways which could not be framed within a ‘male gaze,’” (An Intimate Distance 11). Therefore, she uses her ideal of desire to depict a woman that appeals to women rather than men. This situates the feminine viewer as the “active desiring agent” therefore, depicting a woman from the female gaze that visually appeals to women (An Intimate Distance 11). As a result, Brooks challenges the “erotic tradition” in Western art to create a “specifically female experience” of the female body, that which was not possible from the masculine gaze (An Intimate Distance 9). Moreover, she suggests that Brooks’s depiction of the female nude, like other female artists, “reconstruct our conception of what female bodies might mean to our culture,” cultivating a feminine body, from the feminine perspective and experience (Betterton 9).
Brooks’ La Venus Triste (1971) further challenges the masculine concept of femininity as Rubinstein appears to lack the flesh and life which was so celebrated in traditional depictions of the female nude [fig. 3]. Rubinstein’s long, slender body lacks the curves that accompany womanhood, thus resembling a pre-pubescent girl. This pre-pubescent body would not be natural of a woman of Rubinstein’s age, therefore suggesting a deliberate effort to contain the bodily margin. In Hunger Strike, Susie Orbach parallels slimness and femininity, suggesting that the skeletal female figure renounces the idea of “woman as fecund,” in exchange for the barren woman which results from amenorrhea and a lack of bodily fat (57). By renouncing the menstrual cycle, the figure—Rubinstein in this case—separates her physical body the socially encouraged biological obligation to procreate. Therefore, by separating the female from her biological obligation to procreate, the ultra-slim woman thus reconstructs the category of femininity beyond the maternal. Brooks’ depiction of Rubinstein presents an infertile, almost lifeless, body exemplified through her visible bones and her whitish skin tone. This suggests a rejection of the sexual expectations of men which directly linked femininity to nativity and motherhood as Rubinstein’s body appears infertile. And moreover, as a homosexual couple Rubinstein and Brooks biologically could not procreate, thus reconfiguring the concept of femininity independent from the maternal association devised by men.
In a sense, Brooks’ La Venus Triste, which separates the maternal body from femininity is similar to the contemporary anorexic woman. Both Brooks’ depiction of Rubinstein and the anorexic woman use the medium of the body and its size to establish an individual femininity from the masculine derived gender category. The anorexic’s control over her weight authorises her control over her appearance and biological ability, therefore establishing an individual femininity, at her command. And further, by restricting the body size the anorexic woman renounces the value of the masculine gaze for her own. Orbach argues that “[the female] identity is deeply entwined with a sense of herself as an attractive person,” therefore the anorexic woman challenges the desiring agent as she constructs her appearance based on her personal sense of self-desire (Hunger Strike 52). In a sense, the anorexic uses her body to align with her personal sense of sexual attractiveness. This challenges category of the active desiring agent, as the anorexic constructs herself based on her personal desire similar Brooks’ depictions of the garçonne body which appeal to her desire.
Therefore, Brooks and her depictions of the slender female nude, like the anorexic woman, challenge the concept of the active desiring agent, in that they reconfigure the female body from the feminine gaze. In that sense, Brooks and her depictions of the female nude are related to the contemporary anorexic woman as they construct a feminine concept of femininity through the body size. This formally rejects the masculine concept of femininity, as the female body appears unalike the masculine depictions in traditional art. Therefore, the relationship between bodily size and femininity is connected the concept of desirability as the size of the body determines to who it appeals. In this case, the slender body which appeals to Brooks and the anorexic woman creates a female experience of femininity, for female visual consumption. Whereas the traditional female body is understood as an object for masculine desire, the slender garçonne body favoured by both Brooks and the anorexic woman is an object for feminine desire. Therefore, the relationship between body size and femininity authorises women control over her objective femininity, from the feminine perspective, and for the female desire.
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