British aristocrat, sculptor, and writer Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge (born Margot Elena Gertrude Taylor) is best remembered for her numerous translations from French and Italian, and is credited with introducing the French novelist Colette to English readers. She also wrote a biography of her longtime partner, Marguerite "John" Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 pathbreaking lesbian novel, “The Well of Loneliness.” In 1908, Una married Admiral Sir Ernest Thomas Troubridge, but the union ended when she met Hall in 1915. Hall introduced Troubridge to American artist Romaine Brooks, who captured her in this 1924 portrait. Troubridge appears with a sense of formality and importance typical of upper-class portraiture, but dachshunds in place of a traditional hunting dog. The dachshunds were a prize-winning pair given to her by Hall. Troubridge's impeccably tailored clothing, cravat, and bobbed hair convey the fashionable and daring androgyny associated with the so-called new woman. The black tailored man's morning suit conceals her feminine figure, and her pose suggests absolute control; note how Troubridge grasps one of the dog's collars. Brooks intended the portrait to be a caricature of her friend as a headstrong, demanding woman, and noted in a letter that this was "a sign of the age which may amuse future feminists." Her monocle suggested multiple symbolic associations to contemporary British audiences: it alluded to Troubridge's upper-class status, her Englishness, her sense of rebellion, and, possibly, her lesbian identity. Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard to a wealthy, unbalanced woman estranged from her husband before Romaine's birth, had a miserable and unstable childhood leaving Romaine scarred from a lack of affection and acceptance. Inheritance of the huge family fortune in 1902 granted her independence to meet an avant-garde group of artists, writers, and intellectuals with whom she associated in Rome, Capri, Paris, and the French Riviera.
“Una, Lady Troubridge” by Romaine Brooks (American) - Oil on canvas / 1924 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #WomenInArt #art #WomanArtist #FemaleArtist #WomensArt #SAAM #Smithsonian #RomaineBrooks #WomenArtists #artwork #1920s #portraitofawoman #style #fashion #UnaVincenzo #portrait
