By Marina von Anrep
Leonard Brooks was a Canadian artist who lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico from the 1940’s until just a few days after his 100th birthday. He has been highly acclaimed for his work as an official Canadian War Artist during the Second World War.
Brooks is well known worldwide as a painter of top caliber who has had numerous solo exhibitions in Palacio Bellas Artes in Mexico City as well as in important galleries and museums in Canada and the United States.. He is the author of eight books about the art of painting.
Brooks has received high praise for his clear lines in various styles and mediums of painting. The director of the McLaughlin Library in Ontario, Canada wrote that “his books are as well written as they are really enjoyable. It is unusual for an artist to be so versatile”. His works are exhibited in the galleries of the highest prestige in all the world.
When the Brooks arrived in San Miguel de Allende, this was a small town that in its architectural beauty showed the remains of the splendor of the Colonial period and, at the same time, was deeply embedded with the traditions of the indigenous population that lived in San Miguel’s surroundings.
The semi-desert land, stony and dotted by cacti, could not have been more different from Toronto. Nature and the people of Mexico enlivened the creativity in both Reva and Leonard. They left behind the snowy horizons and during their walks through the highlands, Reva conversed with the people of the countryside and took pictures of them, while Leonard painted the landscapes and put the villages into perspective.
With great speed Reva learned the mechanical process of the art of photography. Overwhelmingly she found the theme of Mexico was her greatest inspiration, so much so that in her productive few years, almost all of her photographs were of Mexico.
One day in 1948, Stirling Dickinson’s gardener knocked on the Brooks door with great urgency, looking for Reva. His sister-in-law Elodia urgently needed to speak to Reva. When Reva arrived at Elodia’s house, she was told the desperate news that the fifth of her seven children had died and asked Reva to make a portrait of him before he would be buried that same day. Reva’s first reaction was one of denial.
Deeply moved, she thought she couldn’t bear to see a dead child. «In Toronto we don’t see dead children.» Then he walked to the open coffin and saw the bright eyes of the little boy, who had his head dressed in a golden cardboard crown, in his hands, which were on his chest, he held a heart-shaped reliquary.
Reva asked the mother to move away the flies fluttering on the corpse and began to photograph the boy. «What Elodia was feeling, I was feeling.» Reva gained international recognition with this series of photos.
Art Exhibition
Leonard & Reva Brooks
“San Miguel’s Art Pioneers, 1947-2011”
Open till March 5 th
Special presentations Sat & Sun at 12:30 and Wed at 6pm
Casa Europa
San Francisco 23, Centro
