Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories

Berkeley, California: University of California Press / Contemporary Jewish Museum / National Portrait Gallery, 2011. Hardcover. VG+. creasing & curling to lower corners; minor rubs to top corners.. pictorial, red boards w/ printing. book ix, 403 pgs w/ bw & color illustrations. Copies removed from publisher's shrinkwrap to inspect. "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. This work is the companion book to an exhibition of the same name, illuminates less familiar aspects of her life. The authors 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. The authors 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 study reveals Stein's sophistication in shaping her public image and cultural legacy. 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.