Dorothy Brett

Dorothy Eugénie Brett (10 November 1883 - 27 August 1977) was a British painter, remembered as much for her social life as for her art. Born into an aristocratic British family, she lived a sheltered early life. During her student years at the Slade School of Art, she associated with Dora Carrington, Barbara Hiles and the Bloomsbury group. Among the people she met was novelist D. H. Lawrence, and it was at his invitation that she moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1924. She remained there for the rest of her life, becoming an American citizen in 1938.

Her work can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., in the Millicent Rogers Museum and the Harwood Museum of Art, both in Taos. Also at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, the Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico and in many private collections.

Dorothy Brett and her sister had an extremely sheltered childhood (Dorothy not becoming aware of the facts of life until she was 30 years old). Their father, Reginald Baliol Brett (from 1899 Lord Esher), was a Liberal Party politician who became influential at the court of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, where the girls attended dancing classes with Princess Beatrice's children, overseen by the Queen. The family lived near Windsor and had homes in London and at Callander in Perthshire, Scotland, where Dorothy spent days fishing in the River Teith and nearby Loch Lubnaig. Dorothy recounted in later life that a friend of her father (apparently Lewis Harcourt, later Lord Harcourt) attempted to sexually assault her when aged about 14–15, an experience to which she attributed her later fear and distrust of men.

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