Picasso and the American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, 1906

Gertrude Stein 1906
Originally uploaded by Mr. History

"Picasso discovered ancient Iberian sculpture from Spain, African art (for he haunted the African collections in the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro in Paris), and Gauguin's sculptures. Slowly, he incorporated the simplified forms he found in these sources into a striking portrait of Gertrude Stein, finished in 1906 and given by her in her will to the Metropolitan Museum. She has a severe masklike face made up of emphatically hewn forms compressed inside a restricted space. (Stein is supposed to have complained, "I don't look at all like that," with Picasso replying, "You will, Gertrude, you will.") This unique portrait comes as a crucial shift from what Picasso saw to what he was thinking and paves the way to Cubism.

The sittings for this famous portrait took place in Picasso's cold studio in Paris, where the 31 year old Stein (1874-1946) in a rickety armchair, a warm brown coat covering her majestic bulk. Picasso portrayed her in the masculine, self-assured posture of the newspaper tycoon Louis-Francois Bertin.

Picasso had been impressed by the sharp mind and free manner of this American writer and collector--she would become one of his most important patrons--and he offered to paint her portrait. In autumn 1905, the many sittings began. In spring 1906, dissatisfied with the face, Picasso painted it out. When he returned to Paris that autumn, he painted, without Stein's presence, this mask like visage. Picasso was bold in grafting a proto-Cubist head on Steins late Rose Period body, creating a startlingly unique and iconic image.