Portrait of Gertrude Stein
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''Portrait of Gertrude Stein'' (French: ') is an
oil on canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
painting of the American writer and art collector
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
by
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, which was begun in 1905 and finished the following year. The painting is housed in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in New York. It is considered one of the important works of
Picasso's Rose Period Picasso's Rose Period represents an important epoch in the life and work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso which had a great impact on the developments of modern art. It began in 1904 at a time when Picasso settled in Montmartre at the Bateau-La ...
. The portrait has historical significance, due to the subject's role in Picasso's early life as a struggling artist and eventual commercial success. It also represents a significant transitional step in the artist's move towards
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
.


Background

After putting aside the pessimistic themes of his Blue Period, Picasso had begun a new, more optimistic phase in early 1905, which is now known as his Rose Period. The previous year, Picasso had arrived in Paris from Barcelona to settle there. During this time, Picasso was living in poverty in a dilapidated artist building at 13 rue Ravignan, known as
Le Bateau-Lavoir The Bateau-Lavoir ("Washhouse Boat") is the nickname of a building in the Montmartre district of the 18th arrondissement of Paris that is famous in art history as the residence and meeting place for a group of outstanding early 20th-century artist ...
. Gertrude and her brother
Leo Stein Leo Stein (May 11, 1872 – July 29, 1947) was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny City (now in Pittsburgh), the older brother of Gertrude Stein. He became an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings. Education ...
were art collectors and became friends with Picasso later in 1905. The siblings acquired three Rose Period artworks from the artist at a point in his life when Picasso was still a struggling artist, thus playing an important role in his financial circumstances and eventual commercial success. By the end of 1906, Picasso's works were being bought by the art dealer
Ambroise Vollard Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotio ...
. Gertrude Stein was an influential collector of modern art. She held weekly “salons” in Paris, which became legendary and were a gathering place for writers, painters, critics, and poets. Gertrude Stein was also a radical and influential writer. Her portrait remained with her in France and she held on to it through both World Wars, until her death. ''Portrait of Gertrude Stein'' was bequeathed to the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
when she died on 27 July 1946. The portrait was returned to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
for permanent exhibition.


Description

Shortly after meeting Stein in 1905, Picasso began to paint her portrait. According to Stein, the process took "eighty or ninety sittings". She recalled how during one session, when the sittings were nearly coming to an end in the winter, Picasso suddenly painted out the head and irritably said, "I can't see you any longer when I look." The portrait was left in this condition until the following autumn, when Stein returned to Paris. After returning from a trip to Spain, Picasso completed the head without even seeing Stein again. When the portrait was complete, both were content with the finished work. Stein said of the portrait, "I was and I still am satisfied with my portrait, for me, it is I, and it is the only reproduction of me which is always I, for me." Picasso's painting challenged the traditional ideas of portraiture, by depicting the subject as a large, hulking figure who stares blankly across the image, rather than towards the viewer. Her body is a round mass, as she leans forward and leans her arms weightily on her knees. In contrast to the work of
Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
, Picasso uses dark, subdued hues of brown and red, rather than bright colours to portray his subject. Stein's physical details are not depicted realistically, Picasso instead chooses to convey her face like a mask, with experimental geometric features. This angular distortion is characteristic of his later Cubist works and is a notable contrast to the rounded, flat rendering of the rest of her body. The portrait of Stein has been depicted in a primitive style, inspired perhaps by Picasso's interest in
African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
and Iberian art. The purpose of this was to convey Stein as she really was, and not simply to portray her physical appearance.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...
, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, commented on the significance of the repainting of the head in Stein's portrait.
During the period between painting out the portrait's face and painting it in again a change of great importance took place in Picasso's art. The original style of the portrait had been naturalistic, comparatively soft and flat, as you can still see in the costume and background. But the repainted face is in the new style, suggesting a sculptured mask with severely drawn, boldly modeled features, rather like the faces of some ancient Spanish sculptures which Picasso had just seen in the Louvre. This change of style turned out to be of great historic importance for it showed the direction Picasso was to follow step by step until it led to cubism.


Significance and legacy

On the portrait's importance, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. remarked that, "Aside from its value as a landmark in modern art, Picasso's painting stands as a powerful characterization of one of the most remarkable and influential American writers of her generation." In 2006, David J. Chalif M.D. remarked on the significance of the painting. "Universally recognized as one of the classic and pivotal works of Picasso's late Rose period, ''Portrait of Gertrude Stein'' brilliantly captures the psychological character of one of the great American writers and cultural figures of the last century."


Reception

In ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Jonathan Jones argued, “Ever since the Renaissance, the portrayal of women had been shaped by ideals of beauty and constrained
social roles A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indivi ...
. Picasso’s ''Portrait of Gertrude Stein'' turns all that upside down. Stein has escaped from the confining categories with which western art previously ensnared women. She is neither old nor young, sexual nor submissive – her stone face makes her something new on Earth. She is in command of her identity.”


See also

*
Picasso's Rose Period Picasso's Rose Period represents an important epoch in the life and work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso which had a great impact on the developments of modern art. It began in 1904 at a time when Picasso settled in Montmartre at the Bateau-La ...
*
Picasso's Blue Period The Blue Period ( es, Período Azul) is a term used to define the works produced by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso between 1901 and 1904 when he painted essentially monochrome, monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasio ...
*
List of Picasso artworks 1901–1910 This is a partial list of artworks produced by Pablo Picasso from 1901 to 1910. This phase of Picasso's life saw his stylistic development continue through his Picasso's Blue Period, Blue, Picas ...
*
Portrait painting Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...
*
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
*''
Young Girl with a Flower Basket ''Young Girl with a Flower Basket'' (French: ''Fillette à la corbeille fleurie'' or ''Jeune fille nue avec panier de fleurs'' or ''Fillette nue au panier de fleurs'' or ''Le panier fleuri'') is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso fro ...
'' *''
Famille d'acrobates avec singe ''Famille d'acrobates avec singe'' (English: ''Family of acrobats with monkey'') is a 1905 painting by Pablo Picasso. It depicts a family of travelling circus performers during an intimate moment. The work was produced on cardboard using mixed m ...
'' *''
Garçon à la pipe ''Garçon à la Pipe'' (English: ''Boy with a Pipe'') is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre area of Paris. The painting ...
''


References

{{Pablo Picasso, state=expanded
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
1900s paintings
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Cultural depictions of Gertrude Stein 1905 paintings 1906 paintings Paintings of Montmartre