The Self Portraits Of Gertrude Stein And

Pablo Picaso Essay, Research Paper

The Self-Portraits of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso

It is no wonder that Picasso, with his revolutionary style of painting, would be attracted to Gertrude Stein s crowded Rue de Fleurus apartment on Saturday evenings for intellectual discussions on art and literature. From the barefoot dances and improvisational plays of Max Jacob to the comments of critics and would-be art patrons like Maurice Raynal and Andr Salmon, this salon was an assortment of artists, bohemians, professionals, and foreigners (Myers 18; Olivier 139). The beginnings of a marvelous relationship sparked betwixt the words of aversion and praise that filled the halls of the Steins extravagant home.

Picasso proved to be rather opinionated, spending the greater part of his visits to the Steins residence sulking in the corner. He found difficulty in explaining his far-fetched opinions and positions, especially in French; in fact, he felt they needed no explanation. Frequent explication of his views, mixed with Matisse s inspired advocation of his own way of painting, failed to entertain Picasso, and thus most viewed him as a rather disagreeable character. Still Picasso returned each Saturday to sit aloof and observe the conversation of Paris elite intellectuals. It was not until Picasso began his portrait of Gertrude Stein that their relationship began to flourish.

Over ninety sittings brought Stein to Bateau Lavoir to be Picasso s first live model in years. Rodenbeck in her essay entitled Insistent Presence in Picasso s Portrait of Gertrude Stein observed that,

Stein was upper middle class, a trained scientist, a non-practicing Jew, a lesbian, over-educated, American and, in 1905, shy with accented French; Picasso, by contrast, was bohemian, a lapsed but highly superstitious Catholic, vigorously heterosexual, self-education, and a Spaniard with accented French. But their attraction was immediate. (4)

Hobhouse writes, Both were direct, a little rough with company, greedy, childish in their enthusiasms and petulant in their dislikes. . . . And both, at the time, were beginning to be convinced they were geniuses (68). They experienced the same events and people in Paris prior to and during the Cubist movement, a common exposure that developed them in the same direction artistically (Myers 37). Picasso demonstrated the breakdown of art and painting into its simplest form; Stein did the same with language. As their relationship developed, Picasso and Stein began having a tremendous influence on each other s works, although Myers noted that ultimately Stein was more influenced by Picasso s work than vice versa since he was unable to read English, her main language of expression (37).

The level of intimacy that was achieved by Picasso and Stein goes deeper than the Saturday evening soir es, though. Stein was to the world of literature what Picasso was to the world of art. They shared the same vision for their respective means of artistic expression and excelled at introducing the world to a new, more free style of relaying its ideas. Stein shared in Picasso s struggle not to express what he could see but not to express the things he did not see, that is to say the things everybody is certain of seeing but which they do not really see (Stein 19). So ultimately, in portraying Picasso, Gertrude Stein managed to reveal herself to her readers. . . . [It] must never be forgotten that the only way Picasso has of speaking, the only way Picasso has of writing is with drawings and paintings (Stein 38).

Stein, in her book Picasso, repeatedly reminds the reader of the similarities between Spaniards and Americans. She writes, . . . Spaniards and Americans . . . have something in common, that is they do not need religion or mysticism not to believe in reality as all the world knows it, not even when they see it. In fact, reality for them is not real and that is why there are skyscrapers and American literature and Spanish painting and literature (18). This perfectly sets the stage for her double feature. In her descriptions of his cubist movement, Stein describes her forging of a new style of writing; in her explanations of his simple shapes and figures, Stein reveals her relaxed, stream-of-consciousness style. Now her audacious attempts at interpreting Picasso s behavior are not so brazen at all, for she is describing herself as well; she and Picasso are the same. Stein is able to comprehend Picasso s motivation in painting, . . . he is a man who always has a need of emptying himself, of completely emptying himself, it is necessary that he should be greatly stimulated so that he could be active enough to empty himself completely. This is the way he lived his life (5). She sees through his eyes, she thinks with his thoughts; they are one.

Stein even warns her reader of the reflections found within her book. She writes on the first pages of her biography ,

The painter does not conceive himself as existing in himself, he conceives himself as a reflection of the objects he has put into his pictures and he lives in the reflections of his pictures, a writer, a serious writer, conceives himself as existing by and in himself, he does not at all live in the reflection of his books, to write he must first of all exist in himself, but for a painter to be able to paint, the painting must first of all be done, therefore the