Amy DeLaBruere, Davenport College '21

Exploring the intersection of literature and the visual arts

By Alexa Pulido Rodriguez.

For Amy DeLaBruere, the literary and visual arts are two branches of the same organism. Amy is a senior pursuing a double major in Art History and English who uses her study of English to better understand artworks and uses examples of visual arts when reading literature or studying poetry. She grew up making visual art in her small hometown in Northern Vermont where she also spent a lot of her time outdoors, running and hiking. As an artist, she enjoys black and white analog photography and printmaking the most. She believes that the darkroom is one of the most relaxing and meditative places you can find. However, as an art historian, she thinks that painting is often the most approachable art medium. One of the people who inspires DeLaBruere and her love for art is her mom, who is an artist and an art teacher. She encouraged her to convey her thoughts and feelings through art while growing up, and they would frequently visit museums as a family. 

DeLaBruere’s love for reading has motivated her hobby of collecting old books, including first edition copies of her favorite books such as Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth (1905) and Dorothea Lange's Ireland (1996)–a collection of Dorothea Lange's black and white photographs in the west of Ireland with an accompanying essay! Moreover, her favorite artist is Edward Hopper, but she also has a soft spot for the French Impressionists. In her first year at Yale, DeLaBruere began working at the reference library in the Yale Center for British Art where she became an expert in bibliographies while sifting the library’s resources to find references to specific paintings in the collection. She later became a gallery guide and a curatorial assistant in the prints and drawings department at the Yale University Art Gallery. On-campus, she serves as the managing editor for Asterisk*, Yale’s Journal for Art and Art History, which provides an outlet for discourse around art for undergraduates. DeLaBruere’s favorite place on campus is the ancient gallery in the Yale University Art Gallery, which has a beautiful neo-gothic interior, massive ceiling windows, and a two-story-high ceiling that lets in light that beautifully illuminates the statues and mosaics. 

In her research, DeLaBruere uses her background in the visual arts as a lens to look at Edwardian (1901-1920) childhood to explore the role that performance and fantasy play in it as a way to extrapolate gender roles and class divides. Inspired by a graduate-level history class she took on “Edwardian Modernity” with Professor Timothy Barringer, her research incorporates visual arts, music, and poetry as a means to look at history differently. Her practical and experimental exploration of art and her background with an artistic mother allow her to see art through both an analytic and creative perspective.