Richard Norris Brooke

Richard Norris Brooke (October 20, 1847 - April 25, 1920) was an American painter known especially for his genre scenes depicting African-American subjects. He has been described as "first among several artists who brought a national distinction to the Washington art community, and who were instrumental in making it more professional through the establishment of schools, clubs, and exhibitions."

Life and career Born in Warrenton, Virginia, Brooke was the son of James Vass Brooke and Mary Norris Brooke; he lived in Warrenton through the American Civil War, during which it was controlled by the Union Army. He is believed to have received his earliest instruction in art from William D. Washington, although definitive proof has never been found. Instead in 1865 Richard matriculated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, at which he studied under Edmund Bonsell and James Lambdin, and from which he graduated in 1871. Later, with Max Weyl, he established a "Barbizon Studio" diagonally across from the former Corcoran Gallery on 17th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., but the commercial nature of the neighborhood meant that a true artistic community could not take hold in the area. In the latter year he was among those who founded the Art Students League of Washington, at which he would also work as an instructor. Long on the staff of the Corcoran School, he serve as its vice principal from 1902 until 1917; During his career he won a number of awards, including the Parsons Prize from the Society of Washington Artists in 1901 and the third Corcoran prize in 1904. at the home of his nephew.

Works

Brooke first achieved notice as a painter of genre scenes of African-American life; in 1871 and 1872, a number of such pieces were reproduced in Harper's Magazine, and his first major canvas upon returning from France, A Pastoral Visit, is representative of his work in the genre. Unusually among his contemporaries, he chose to depict his black subjects in a sympathetic, rather than a caricatured, light.

Brooke produced numerous other genre pieces during his career, most notably A Dog Swap; he seems, however, to have preferred to paint landscapes instead of genre pieces, and spent much time depicting the landscape around Warrenton.

Collections Brooke's portrait of Robert M. T. Hunter being removed from the Speakers Gallery of the U.S. Capitol, July 18, 2020. The Pastoral Visit remained in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art until that institution's dissolution, at which point it entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art. and two undated works on paper, Burial of a Papoose and Yellowstone Geyser. Two paintings are owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a depiction of Pocahontas completed in 1907, and a View of Gloucester Harbor dated to around 1910. Two portraits by Brooke are held by the United States House of Representatives. One, of John Marshall, is a copy of the Washington portrait which Brooke had saved from the fire at the Fauquier County Courthouse. The other, of Speaker Robert M. T. Hunter (later President pro tempore of the Confederate States Senate), was among the Confederate portraits ordered removed from display by Nancy Pelosi in 2020, in response to protests over the murder of George Floyd. A Civil War genre painting of 1872, Furling the Flag, is in the collection of the West Point Museum. A Dog Swap (1881), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. A Pastoral Visit (oil on canvas, 1881), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ex collection: Corcoran Gallery of Art Pocahontas (1889-1907), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia Elizabeth Lee Pollack (1890), Lloyd House, Alexandria, Virginia Benjamin H. Bristow (by 1893), U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, D.C. Served as Secretary of the Treasury, 1874-1876 William J. Duane (by 1893), U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, D.C. Served as Secretary of the Treasury, 1833 James Madison (1895), Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois A copy of this is in the collection of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rocky Coast (1900), Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia James Addison Quarles (1905), Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia View of Gloucester Harbor ( 1910), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia Robert M. T. Hunter (1911), U.S. House of Representatives Collection, U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. Hunter was U.S. Speaker of the House, 1839-1841; and President pro tempore of the Confederate States Senate, 1862-1865. The portrait was removed from display in 2020. Woodrow Wilson (by 1917), Philipse Manor Hall, Yonkers, New York