Gertrude Stein - Collector, Critic, and Writer

Gertrude Stein was born on February 3, 1874 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She was the youngest of five children in a Jewish family and moved with them to Vienna and then to Paris for her father's work. Her father worked as a railroad executive and was quite wealthy. Once her parents died, she was sent to live with her mother's family in Baltimore and her oldest brother took over the family business.

She attended Radcliffe College and Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1903 Gertrude moved to Paris and lived with her brother Leo Stein who was an art critic. She collected art and had a particular eye for masterpieces. Her first collection was assembled with the help of Leo and became well known thanks to her friends who loved the collection and wrote about it in their newspapers. "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" is one of her most famous quotes because it describes the sheer simplicity that a rose really is just a rose.

Gertrude was 72 when she died of stomach cancer. Her writing and critics we valued by all of her friends like Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway who would come to her for advice on their works. She was also a lesbian and wrote the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas who is said to be her partner.

one of the paintings in her collection Woman with a Hat

Questions

1. What brought your person to France? Was there a particular reason that she left America to pursue her work in France?

Gertrude originally first went to France because of her father's job, but moved back to live with her brother. She loved being there and living a lifestyle with artistic freedoms in her favorite city. She held salons where her friends would come over for a little get together and originated the idea from a friend back in the U.S.

2.What do you think of your person's work? Does it appeal to you? Why or why not?

I like that she was different and and wrote the way she thought of things. She was not afraid of speaking her mind and describing things the way that she thought they should be. In her book Pairs France, she rambles on and doesn't seem to ever complete one story or thought she just jumps from story to story.

3.Based on what you know about the person and the samples you've found, would you be interested in more of their work? Why or why not?

Yes, I would like to read one of her books or visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art which holds a collection of hers that includes Picasso paintings. I think that if I were to visit Paris one day it would be really cool to visit her apartment that she lived in with her brother.

Sample Poem

A Long Dress

That is the current that makes machinery,
that makes it crackle,
what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist.
What is this current.
What is the wind, what is it.

Where is the serene length,
it is there and a dark place is not a dark place,
only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue,
a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it.
A line just distinguishes it.