Dorothy Eugenie Brett (American, 1883-1977)

Dorothy Brett was the daughter of a British aristocrat who was a close advisor to Queen Victoria. She studied at the Slade School of art and started her career as a painter of portraits of English celebrities. She counted Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and D.H. and Frieda Lawrence amongst her friends. In 1924 she joined the Lawrences on a visit to Taos, to never leave there again. She became an American citizen in 1983. Her work consists of portraits, landscapes, mystic and symbolic pieces (such as the present lot) and, said to be her favorite subject, the Taos Indian celebrations.