Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
British, 1890-1978 (active England and America)

Adolescence, 1932
etching
Sheet: 19 3/8 x 13 1⁄2 in.

SBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory
1998.50.19



Brockhurst in self-portrait, 1949, black chalk on paper

RESEARCH PAPER

In the depiction we see Brockhurst’s mistress, Kathleen Nancy Woodward, sitting on a stool in front of her dressing table mirror. She was at the time nineteen years of age and perhaps the essence of vulnerability. Yet she is making eye contact with herself in what appears to be forthright scrutiny. The objects around her and on what is a makeup vanity suggest she is about to become or diminish herself as a woman. In her right hand she holds something, perhaps a cloth, to be used to either apply or wipe away her makeup. The teapot and saucer and cup on the dresser suggest that this is a routine perhaps ritualistic moment for her, a leisurely but studied transformation from adolescence to womanhood.

This is the artist's study of his muse Kathleen Woodward, who came to be known as Dorette and whom he eventually married, was one of the most influential and familiar icons of erotica of the 1930s.

As she looks in the mirror the young woman is studying her naked body. But she seems vulnerable and perhaps unhappy with what she sees. She is a teenager and might be experiencing a twinge of anxiety about the way she looks. This print is sometimes described as study of body dysmorphia. The artist has rendered a nearly perfect body; the young woman, however, does not appear to be convinced. Perhaps she studying her body with concentrated approval, perhaps disapproval. She may be engaged in a kind of sexual dreaming, maybe about the past, or most likely about the future.

To some, this portrait is simply a study of beauty. To others it is a disturbing, even distasteful depiction. From a technical point of view, we see the artist’s talent portraying the female human figure. In addition to an exquisite form this work portrays of a variety of surfaces, textures, tones and illuminations. But, the darkly lit depiction induces a feeling of voyeurism.

In a general sense this image invites us to think about the change in societal mores regarding sex and eroticism and the influence of this change on art criticism and appreciation. It is an image which appears in many ways to transgress the line separating art and erotica, raising questions such as: Is there necessarily a line between art and erotica? If this was erotica in 1932, would it be considered such today? Is there a difference between erotica and pornography? Is the image a sensitive portrayal of emergent sexuality or an exploitation of a female adolescent’s sexual agency?

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst was a British painter, born in 1890 in Birmingham, England. Brockhurst attended the Birmingham School of Art from the age of 12. Described by some as a 'young Botticelli', his figure drawing skills won him a gold medal and scholarship at the Royal Academy Schools in 1913. He studied in England, France and Italy, where he was influenced by Piero Della Francesca, Da Vinci and of course, Botticelli. He was considered the most accomplished portraitist of the early twentieth century in England and the United States.

Throughout the 1930s he continued an increasingly successful career painting society portraits in New York. He ceased printmaking in the 1940s but is known for his small etched prints of beautiful women, and portraits of famous figures, such as the Duchess of Windsor.

Brockhurst was Britain’s most sought-after portrait artist in the first half of the twentieth century. When he moved to the United States in 1939 his work was met with mixed reviews. Some critics were supportive, but others were scathingly critical of his tendency to churn out portraits of wealthy patrons. Critics commented that Brockhurst’s paintings were made only for those who could afford them. This was especially troublesome to those aware of hardships suffered by artists during the Great Depression and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

By the waning years of his career Brockhurst was known for painting about two pretty girls a year but about 20 corporate presidents, all men. Unlike the earlier female portraits, these works emphasized the ideas of speed, technology and power attributed to male executives.

In his work, especially early on, Brockhurst was fascinated with the potential of the human face and idealized feminine beauty. As literary theorist and cultural critic Elaine Scarry explains, beauty brings copies of itself into being. To paraphrase Scarry, she notes that beauty makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people. A visual portrait embodies a desire to commemorate beauty as well as to preserve the pleasure gained from looking at a beautiful image.

Prepared for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docent Council by Dan Linz, 2020.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goodchild, Anne L. “Brockhurst, Gerald Leslie (1890–1978)” in “Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Scarry, Elaine. “On Beauty and Being Just.” Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

POSTSCRIPT

Adolescence. (Kathleen Nancy Woodward). 1932. Etching. Fletcher 75.vi. 14 3/8 x 10 7/16 (sheet 17 x 12 1/2). Total edition 91. Illustrated: Guichard, British Etchers 1850-1940; Fine Prints of the Year, 1933 and and Zigrosser, Six Centuries of Fine Prints. A luminous, richly-inked impression on simili-japon paper. Signed in pencil. This is the artist's magnum opus. It was one of the most influential and familiar icons of erotica of the 1930s.

allinsongallery.com

Oddly, the image in the SBMA collection is also signed in pencil by Margaret Mallory in the lower left corner.



Brockhurst etching in his studio

COMMENTS

After attending the Birmingham School of Art, Gerald L. Brockhurst entered the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he received the Gold Medal and Traveling Scholarship in 1913. The award allowed him to visit Paris and Italy, where he studied works by early Italian painters. Piero della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci remained important influences. From 1915 to 1919, Brockhurst lived in Ireland, where he met painter Augustus John, whose painting style was influenced by contemporary French art's simplicity of color and forms. In 1919 Brockhurst returned to England for his first significant gallery exhibition. During the 1920s Brockhurst became an etcher, focusing primarily on female portraits and using his wife as his model. Coolness, technical perfection, and overt classicism mark both his printmaking style and his painting manner. By 1930 Brockhurst had returned to painting with a new teenage model, Dorette Woodard, whom he later married. His haunting portraits of her opened the door to fame and fortune, and he became a fashionable portrait painter; his stated goal was to capturing appearance, not character. His sitters included J. Paul Getty, Marlene Dietrich, and the Duchess of Windsor. In 1939, at the height of his success, Brockhurst settled in the United States.