Indian woman smoking

Dorothy Eugenie Brett, commonly known only by her surname ‘Brett’, studied at the Slade between 1910 and 1916 and whilst there was associated with the Bloomsbury Group. In 1924 the novelist D.H.Lawrence invited her to move with him and his wife to Taos, New Mexico to join the literary colony of Mabel Dodge Luhan. Brett lived there for the rest of her life and became an American citizen. The customs and folklore traditions of Native Americans were a source of continuous inspiration for Brett’s art, as depicted in these works collected by Edward James. Edward James met Brett in Taos in 1940 when he was a guest of Mabel (a distant cousin) and maintained a lifelong friendship with her.