For decades, the atmospheric, somber portraits by Romaine Brooks (1874-1970) were marginalized by art history, considered belated and melancholic reflections of rarefied, fin de siecle taste. The gender-bending figurative explorations of the past 20 years, however, have given a new currency to Brooks's depictions of her largely lesbian and gay artistic circle. A recent traveling exhibition, "Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks," curated by Joe Lucchesi for the ...