When American-born novelist Gertrude Stein moved to Paris as a 29-year-old, she quickly became an important patron of the arts. Thanks to her inherited wealth and intellectual interests, Stein and her brother collected avant-garde art in her Parisian salon and regularly entertained famous artists and literary figures. Among the frequent guests was Pablo Picasso, with whom she developed a lifelong friendship.
In 1905, Stein commissioned Picasso to paint her portrait, reportedly sitting for it as many as 90 separate times. Picasso’s completed work delighted Stein but befuddled art critics. Those hoping for traditional perspective were treated to a dose of Cubism instead. The portrait depicts Stein in dark tones, her body leaning awkwardly forward in a chair. With an angular geometry to her expressionless face, she stares blankly past the viewer through disjointed eyes.
Picasso’s response to critics was noteworthy: “Everybody says that she does not look like [the portrait], but that does not make any difference; [in time] she will.” Perhaps he meant to imply that a portrait’s function isn’t to convey exact resemblance so much as to provide the opportunity to imagine one’s complex interiority. But that’s only a guess. What seems evident from his retort is the suggestion that Stein wasn’t fully what she would yet become. There was more surprise to be revealed, in other words, in the evolutions of her life ahead.
