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Correspondence: Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein
Pablo Picasso was one of the most prodigious and revolutionary artists in the history of Western painting. Gertrude Stein was an avant-garde American writer, art collector, eccentric and self-styled genius. Her Paris home was the leading salon for artists and writers between the Wars. Picasso painted Stein's portrait and they became firm friends. Their correspondence extends across a time of extraordinary social and political change, between 1906 and 1944, effectively from the Belle Epoque to the German Occupation of the Second World War. Both wrote in French -- a language neither ever entirely mastered. Written as letters, cards and scribbled notes, their intimate correspondence touches lightly on both the weighty and the everyday -- holidays, money, dinner invitations, art, family, lovers, travel arrangements, how work goes, or the war. The correspondence has been carefully edited and is presented by period, each introduced with an outline of significant personal and historical events of the time. Explanatory notes to the letters are rich in background detail. The volume also features photographs, facsimiles of postcards and letters as well as sketches, drawings and paintings by Picasso.
390 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 22, 2012
After seeing "Midnight in Paris" I want to read this book again. It's thrilling to get a glimpse into Picasso and Stein's life. Great collection of (translated) letters, thorough footnotes, and collection of images of original letters/postcards/drawings.
December 20, 2022
Gertrude Stein, a lot of whose works still remain an enigma to me, was a major figure in Pablo Picasso's life. Picasso's language, style and periods have been easier for me to understand over time. When they met in the autumn of 1905, as the preface to this book tells us, Picasso was 21 and Stein 31.
I'd hoped to read some exciting letters between the two of them but my hopes were belied. Their communications, or dare I call them 'conversations' on paper or postcards, were cryptic, barebone, functional, related to the art business and trade, displaying affection in bits (in the greetings or the sign-offs), and generally disappointing for a person who has loved reading the autobiographies, diaries, aphorisms, musings, doodling, and letters of great artists, writers, film-makers, etc.
Stein and Picasso were friends for decades and preserved each other's letters. The letters indicate that they had long conversations, in poor French perhaps, but the content of these conversations is lost to all. We know they took place but it is a mystery for what they spoke of over meals, in their soirees, in their drawing rooms, at art shows, or when Stein posed for Picasso to draw her portrait over weeks on end, all of it is lost or can only be speculated about.
Laurence Madeline, the editor of the book, tells us "these letters were written by friends how had nothing to prove to one another. Neither sought to impress the other with elaborate shows of eloquence or seamlessly structured theories. And as with Picasso/Apollinaire, the crucial debates about art, creation, life and 'everything' were engaged elsewhere." You and I are excluded from that 'everything' and 'elsewhere' but we can when intrigued sufficiently enough read the letters, get a feeling that you are walking and living among the artists Stein and Picasso knew and mention, and cast a line of imagination into the waters of the past and see what fish of insight one can catch.
So these letters are a sort of entry point by 'names' to the hallowed circles these artists belonged to and one gets glimpse into their daily lives, interests, borrowing and returning money, deals with art dealers, the buying and selling artworks, and so on. Some of Picasso's letters are to Leo Stein, Gertrude's brother, and we also read about the other brother Michael who looked after their estate in the USA whose dividends afforded the three of them the art buyer's or artist's lives in Paris.
The names one comes across through the correspondence include Gauguin, Cezanne, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Matisse, Vollard, Alfred Steiglitz, etc. One sees how Stein had an influence on Picasso that egged him into Cubism and vice versa though their languages were different. Indeed, for Stein Picasso is the father of Cubism and she ignored Georges Braque almost entirely. Gertrude and Picasso grew so close that there was rupture between them and Leo Stein whom Picasso treats with affection in many letters. The break is ascribed to Leo feeling that Stein was instrumental in making Picasso over-intellectualize his work and even think of herself as a "Cubist of letters' if such a thing ever existed.
Leo doubted the greatness of both Getrude and Picasso. He wrote to his friend Mabel Weeks that "both he and Gertrude are using their intellects, which they ain't got, to do what would need the finest critical tact, which they ain't got neither, and they are in my belief turning out the most Godalmighty rubbish that is to be found."
In a certain sense, I admire Leo's critique of two people who have become iconic ivory tower artists that no criticism can taint! What is interesting about the relationship between Picasso, Leo and Gertrude is that Picasso painted portraits of both the Steins. He chose Gertude over Leo because he knew that they would have an undying loyalty towards one another.
So, as one goes through the letters, addressed often to "Dear (Leo) Stein", "Stein my friend", "Stein my dear friend", one senses how distance creeps into their relationship as Gertrude ("your lady sister") takes precedence in Picasso's life. Picasso's wife during this period was Fernande and she adds an affectionate sentence or para to many of his letters to Leo and Gertrude.
There is a constant exchange of news (never views) about places the Steins or the Picassos visit, dinners or lunches missed or attended, art works bought or sold through the dealer Vollard, monetary transactions and so on. Picasso is often grateful for the monetary help rendered by the Steins and their purchases of his artworks. It an affectionate yet businesslike relationship in many ways. There are updates about Picasso falling sick and recovering, shifting places of residence, thhe progress of the poems of Max Jacob or Apollinaire and so on.
Many letters were sent to each other on postcards and symbolic of their progressive relationship, often connected to something in art or culture that the correspondents were struck by for one reason or the other. For example:
Picasso to Gertrude Stein
(11 September 1914 postcard)
RECTO
Photograph of a regiment on the march stamped with a red cross inside a circle and the letter JM.
VERSO
This is a regiment marching out of Avignon towards teh Frontier. We are all enthusiasm here in France." [diagonally in Eva's writing] Long live France!
Picasso was going through a seizure of patriotism when this card was sent, the side notes tell us, and that this postcard is preserved in the Picasso Archives, Picasso Museum, Paris. Also, it does not bear a stamp suggesting that it was included as part of a letter. All in all, the correspondence itself between Picasso and Gertrude is rather mundane and even boring but what actually makes the book exciting are the side notes which connects the reader of these letters to a world of artists and their ways and accomplishments during a radical period in the history of western art.
Where else can I read a letter and know that it refers to Gertrude and Alice B Toklas returning to Paris in June 1916 to a vermissage Picasso invited them to, "a symptom of the rebirth of social and artistic life in the capital despite the continuing hostilities"? "The exhibition referred to here "L'Art Moderne en France" was organised by Andre Salmon at (Paul) Poiret's couture house from 16 to 31 July. it was there that Demoiselles d'Avignon was displayed to the public the first time."
I, therefore, recommend that you read this book for its side notes and the plates more than the letters themselves.
I'd hoped to read some exciting letters between the two of them but my hopes were belied. Their communications, or dare I call them 'conversations' on paper or postcards, were cryptic, barebone, functional, related to the art business and trade, displaying affection in bits (in the greetings or the sign-offs), and generally disappointing for a person who has loved reading the autobiographies, diaries, aphorisms, musings, doodling, and letters of great artists, writers, film-makers, etc.
Stein and Picasso were friends for decades and preserved each other's letters. The letters indicate that they had long conversations, in poor French perhaps, but the content of these conversations is lost to all. We know they took place but it is a mystery for what they spoke of over meals, in their soirees, in their drawing rooms, at art shows, or when Stein posed for Picasso to draw her portrait over weeks on end, all of it is lost or can only be speculated about.
Laurence Madeline, the editor of the book, tells us "these letters were written by friends how had nothing to prove to one another. Neither sought to impress the other with elaborate shows of eloquence or seamlessly structured theories. And as with Picasso/Apollinaire, the crucial debates about art, creation, life and 'everything' were engaged elsewhere." You and I are excluded from that 'everything' and 'elsewhere' but we can when intrigued sufficiently enough read the letters, get a feeling that you are walking and living among the artists Stein and Picasso knew and mention, and cast a line of imagination into the waters of the past and see what fish of insight one can catch.
So these letters are a sort of entry point by 'names' to the hallowed circles these artists belonged to and one gets glimpse into their daily lives, interests, borrowing and returning money, deals with art dealers, the buying and selling artworks, and so on. Some of Picasso's letters are to Leo Stein, Gertrude's brother, and we also read about the other brother Michael who looked after their estate in the USA whose dividends afforded the three of them the art buyer's or artist's lives in Paris.
The names one comes across through the correspondence include Gauguin, Cezanne, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Matisse, Vollard, Alfred Steiglitz, etc. One sees how Stein had an influence on Picasso that egged him into Cubism and vice versa though their languages were different. Indeed, for Stein Picasso is the father of Cubism and she ignored Georges Braque almost entirely. Gertrude and Picasso grew so close that there was rupture between them and Leo Stein whom Picasso treats with affection in many letters. The break is ascribed to Leo feeling that Stein was instrumental in making Picasso over-intellectualize his work and even think of herself as a "Cubist of letters' if such a thing ever existed.
Leo doubted the greatness of both Getrude and Picasso. He wrote to his friend Mabel Weeks that "both he and Gertrude are using their intellects, which they ain't got, to do what would need the finest critical tact, which they ain't got neither, and they are in my belief turning out the most Godalmighty rubbish that is to be found."
In a certain sense, I admire Leo's critique of two people who have become iconic ivory tower artists that no criticism can taint! What is interesting about the relationship between Picasso, Leo and Gertrude is that Picasso painted portraits of both the Steins. He chose Gertude over Leo because he knew that they would have an undying loyalty towards one another.
So, as one goes through the letters, addressed often to "Dear (Leo) Stein", "Stein my friend", "Stein my dear friend", one senses how distance creeps into their relationship as Gertrude ("your lady sister") takes precedence in Picasso's life. Picasso's wife during this period was Fernande and she adds an affectionate sentence or para to many of his letters to Leo and Gertrude.
There is a constant exchange of news (never views) about places the Steins or the Picassos visit, dinners or lunches missed or attended, art works bought or sold through the dealer Vollard, monetary transactions and so on. Picasso is often grateful for the monetary help rendered by the Steins and their purchases of his artworks. It an affectionate yet businesslike relationship in many ways. There are updates about Picasso falling sick and recovering, shifting places of residence, thhe progress of the poems of Max Jacob or Apollinaire and so on.
Many letters were sent to each other on postcards and symbolic of their progressive relationship, often connected to something in art or culture that the correspondents were struck by for one reason or the other. For example:
Picasso to Gertrude Stein
(11 September 1914 postcard)
RECTO
Photograph of a regiment on the march stamped with a red cross inside a circle and the letter JM.
VERSO
This is a regiment marching out of Avignon towards teh Frontier. We are all enthusiasm here in France." [diagonally in Eva's writing] Long live France!
Picasso was going through a seizure of patriotism when this card was sent, the side notes tell us, and that this postcard is preserved in the Picasso Archives, Picasso Museum, Paris. Also, it does not bear a stamp suggesting that it was included as part of a letter. All in all, the correspondence itself between Picasso and Gertrude is rather mundane and even boring but what actually makes the book exciting are the side notes which connects the reader of these letters to a world of artists and their ways and accomplishments during a radical period in the history of western art.
Where else can I read a letter and know that it refers to Gertrude and Alice B Toklas returning to Paris in June 1916 to a vermissage Picasso invited them to, "a symptom of the rebirth of social and artistic life in the capital despite the continuing hostilities"? "The exhibition referred to here "L'Art Moderne en France" was organised by Andre Salmon at (Paul) Poiret's couture house from 16 to 31 July. it was there that Demoiselles d'Avignon was displayed to the public the first time."
I, therefore, recommend that you read this book for its side notes and the plates more than the letters themselves.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews