Seeing Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein is justly famous for her modernist writings and her patronage of vanguard painters (most notably Matisse and Picasso) in Paris before the First World War. Seeing Gertrude Stein, the companion book to an exhibition of the same name, illuminates less familiar aspects of her life. Wanda M. Corn and Tirza True Latimer analyze the portraits for which Stein posed, the domestic settings she created with Alice B. Toklas, her partner, and the signature styles of dress the two women adopted. Corn and Latimer also explore Stein’s engagement with multiple art forms and the bonds she formed with younger artists. Focusing on portraits in a range of media, photo essays, press clippings, snapshots, clothing, furniture, and other visual artifacts, this pathbreaking study reveals Stein’s sophistication in shaping her public image and cultural legacy. Lavishly illustrated throughout, these “five stories” represent Stein’s life on a human scale while tracing her influence on a wide variety of visual artists of her own and subsequent generations.