Dorothy Eugenie Brett US, 1883-1977

Dorothy Brett, whose father was an advisor to Queen Victoria, grew up in a posh London house and took dancing classes at Windsor Castle. She dressed in bohemian clothes and wore her hair very short, and as a student at London’s Slade Art School, became friends with prominent writers of her day, including D. H. Lawrence. In 1924, Lawrence and his wife traveled to Taos, and Brett accompanied them. She was thrilled by the exotic new landscape and ended up staying. A contemporary magazine quoted Brett on her new environment: “I like it better than England. O, for the bigness of it! . . . Here I’m free from the old conventions . . . Here I’m truly free.” Brett built a successful career creating children’s book illustrations and colorful paintings of the New Mexico landscape. (Cassidy, New Mexico Highway Journal, March 1933)