The portraits of Gertrude Stein

Portraits of Gertrude Stein

An Analysis of Two Portraits of Gertrude Stein

The two portraits of Gertrude Stein by Sir Francis Rose and Pablo Picasso are as different as any two portraits of the same subject might be. While one might suspect it to be the latter whose rendition of the author/critic/poet/promoter is the more opaque and abstract, it is actually the former whose portrait represents Stein as a kind of abstraction. Picasso's painting is one that thoroughly resembles Stein and captures her quite elegantly (as is even featured in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris, hanging on the wall above Stein's throne as she critiques Picasso's other works). This paper will compare and contrast the two portraits by Rose and Picasso, showing how both attempt to illuminate the character of the popular friend of artists.

Francis Rose

The character of Rose's portrait may be considered in the light of what he himself thought of his style: "a new medium of artistic expression…half abstract and half symbolic" (Art: Blossoming Career 1949). Clearly all of that, Rose was a painter who appealed to Stein and to few others: to Stein perhaps because of his devotion to both Picasso and Catholicism -- a combination that would have appealed to her own sensibilities and prejudices. After all, Picasso was her baby, essentially. As for the great English Catholic author Evelyn Waugh, Picasso was a fraud -- and he ended each of his letters heaping scorn upon the artist.

Rose's art, then, was experimental and such is seen in the portrait of his patron: symbolic it must be considered, as Stein appears to be a kind of bug-eyed insect in the robes of an ancient. The style is flattering, presenting Stein as a figure similar to the one who holds the scales of justice in her hands: Stein is viewed as an emblem of artistic perception, recognizing the good, discerning the bad. The portrait by Rose is reflective of the time. Its abstract representations are avant-garde and modern, yet its subject is discernible. As Clement Greenberg stated, "It has been in search of the absolute that the avant-garde has arrived at 'abstract' or nonobjective' art…The avant-garde poet or artist tries in effect to imitate God by creating something valid solely on its own term, in the way nature itself is valid…" (p. 531). Such is where Rose would rank.

Pablo Picasso

Picasso would also rank there; nonetheless, his portrait of Stein is much more classical than Rose's. Then again, Picasso was the better artist -- despite the fact that he rarely labored over any single piece of artwork. As Paul Johnson states of Picasso, he "was perhaps the most restless, experimental, and productive artist who ever lived. But everything had to be done at top speed. He was incapable of lavishing care, time, or sustained effort on a work of art" (p. 250). At this point in his career, Picasso could represent Stein quite well. The style is neither abstract nor entirely avant-garde: it is reflective, slightly off-kilter, but encompassing of the subject and her character.

Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein, therefore, must be considered the better of the two, even if Rose's appears to be the more dynamic. Rose was an imitator, not exactly an orginal -- but then, could the same be said of Picasso? Both were feeding into the whirlwind that was modern art, constantly exploding and changing the dynamic of form and expression. Picasso's Stein, however, retains the dignity of the brush for a moment and is a thoughtful representation of a woman whose own influence over the art world was so great.

While, as Johnson says, Picasso's "distorted paintings of women are closely linked to the pleasure he got from hurting them, both physically and in other ways," (p. 256) none of that is depicted in his portrait of Stein. The painting is respectful to say the least, and showed what Picasso was capable of in terms of representative art work. There is no evidence that Picasso "ruled over" Stein -- quite the contrary, from the grandeur of her character in the portrait, one might assume that Stein, in fact, ruled over Picasso.