{"id":125329,"date":"2018-05-14T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=125329"},"modified":"2018-05-15T16:14:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T20:14:20","slug":"gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Gertrude Stein\u2019s Mutual Portraiture Society"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Portraits of Gertrude Stein by Picabia, Picasso, and Valleton.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Between 1908 and her death, in 1946, Gertrude Stein created over a hundred prose portraits, which she called \u201cword paintings.\u201d Most of her portraits were of her friends: Alice B. Toklas, Matisse, Picasso, Sherwood Anderson, Erik Satie, Hemingway, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Jane Heap, Carl Van Vechten, Virgil Thomson, Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia, Guillaume Apollinaire, and others.<\/p>\n

In some cases, she was returning the favor of a friend having made a portrait of her in another medium. Picasso\u2019s Portrait of Gertrude Stein<\/em> was followed by Stein\u2019s \u201cPablo Picasso,\u201d which appeared in a special issue of Camera Work<\/em>, edited by Alfred Stieglitz. (The issue also featured Stein\u2019s Henri Matisse<\/em>\u00a0and reproductions of works by Picasso and Matisse.) Stein would then write a prose portrait of Stieglitz, too.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something precious and annoying about these artists\u2019 mutual admiration, but also something admirably transactional\u2014you do me, I\u2019ll do you, and we\u2019ll both benefit. This mutual portrait project reached a new level of absurdity in 1923, when Stein\u2019s \u201cA Portrait of Jo Davidson\u201d was published in Vanity Fair<\/em>. Stein\u2019s piece was accompanied by three photos: a photo by Man Ray of Davidson working on his recently completed sculpture of Stein (a bronze casting based on Davidson\u2019s model now sits in Bryant Park); a photo of Jacques Lipchitz\u2019s 1920 bronze bust of Stein; and a photo of Picasso\u2019s\u00a01907 painting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The caption to Ray\u2019s photo of Davidson reported that Stein had \u201creturned [Davidson\u2019s] compliment\u201d by writing a portrait of him. Here is that portrait: \u201cYou know and I know, I know and you know, you know and I know, we know and they know, they know and we know, they know and I know, they know and they know you know and you know I know and I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was something to be known, not even Davidson knew what it was. He wrote, in a 1951 memoir, \u201cGertrude did a portrait of me in prose. When she read it aloud, I thought it was wonderful. It was published in Vanity Fair<\/em> with my portrait of her. But when I tried to read it out loud to some friends, or for that matter to myself, it didn\u2019t make very much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Man Ray was also part of this mutual portrait society. In 1922, Ray took\u00a0\u200bGertrude Stein and Picasso\u2019s Portrait<\/em>, which shows her seated perpendicular to Picasso\u2019s portrait of her, with the painted Stein regarding the real one. In 1924, Stein composed a prose portrait of Ray. \u201cSometime Man Ray sometime,\u201d it went. \u201cSometime Man Ray sometime. Sometime Man Ray sometime. Sometime sometime.\u201d (The portrait was never published.) Stein had granted Ray the exclusive right to photograph her, but this arrangement\u2014and their friendship\u2014ended in 1930, when Ray billed her for his services. That base mercenary request was out of place in the prestige economy. \u201cMy dear Man Ray,\u201d Stein wrote. \u201cWe are all hard up, but don\u2019t be silly about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Man Ray, Gertrude Stein and Picasso\u2019s Portrait<\/em>, 1922.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stein\u2019s exchanges with other artists were both an honor and a form of self-referential silliness, and usually asymmetrical. Her portraits were often incomprehensible even to their subjects, whom they nonetheless elevated by her touch; the physical portraits she received in return increased her visibility and notoriety.<\/p>\n

Carl Van Vechten was a sneakier opportunist. Soon after meeting Stein, in 1913, Van Vechten appointed himself her champion in the U.S. In 1914, he wrote \u201cHow to Read Gertrude Stein,\u201d the first of many public assertions of their mutual affinity and understanding. Over the next thirty years, Van Vechten arranged for the publication of Stein\u2019s writing, organized her 1934 lecture tour in America, and wrote worshipful essays on and introductions to her work. As Edward White argues in The Tastemaker<\/em>, Van\u00a0Vechten\u2019s greatest talent was not only for \u201crecognizing and expressing\u201d artists\u2019 \u201cbrilliance,\u201d but also, in doing so, \u201cbinding himself to their greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein reciprocated in various ways: she wrote two portraits of Van Vechten (three, actually\u2014one was not published); she dedicated her 1934 book Portraits and Prayers<\/em> to him; she let him photograph her; and she praised his writing and photography.<\/p>\n

Even the pair\u2019s private correspondence became an occasion to celebrate each other, though mostly to celebrate Stein. In the 1920s, Van Vechten started making his own postcards, following Stein\u2019s custom of personalizing stationery with phrases from her own writing. In 1931, he wrote to Stein in France, reporting on his \u201cpostcard craze\u201d: \u201cI now have postcards of [Kristians] Tonny\u2019s & Picasso\u2019s portraits of you & if you can get me a photograph of it, I would have postcards of Jo Davidson\u2019s statue too! I want to have this very much!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein sent Van Vechten a photograph (possibly by George Lynes) of Davidson\u2019s sculpture, and she asked Davidson to send Van Vechten some images as well. Davidson obliged, and Van Vechten photographed the photo and sent it back to Stein as a postcard.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Carl Van Vechten\u2019s postcard to Stein, April 26, 1932<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pleased by his postcard, in 1933 Stein, in turn, sent Van Vechten a postcard featuring a photograph of Francis Picabia and herself, holding between them Picabia\u2019s painting of her. Twenty years earlier, Stein had published \u201cArticle,\u201d a portrait of Picabia. No portrait could go unreciprocated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stein\u2019s postcard to Van Vechten, c. 1932<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Portraits and Prayers<\/em>, with a photograph of Stein by Van Vechten on the cover, bears a dedication to him that reads, \u201cTO CARL. Who knows what a portrait is because he makes and is them.\u201d Stein also included in the book her third portrait of Van Vechten, \u201cVan or Twenty Years After.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two months after Portraits and Prayers<\/em> was published, Van Vechten, who had turned to photography full time, took Gertrude Stein, January 4, 1935<\/em>, which he showed (along with a few other works) that year in the Second International Leica Exhibition of Photography in New York.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Van Vechten, Gertrude Stein.<\/em>\u00a0January 4, 1935<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Van Vechten\u2019s small contribution caught the attention of the art critic Henry McBride, who hailed Van Vechten as \u201cthe Bronzino of this camera period\u201d and predicted that future \u201canalyzers of Gertrude Stein\u201d would have \u201call the data they need\u201d in Van Vechten\u2019s portrait. \u201cThey won\u2019t require personal contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein herself seemed to know, as she sat for portraits and portraits of portraits, and made portraits of her admiring friends, that the portraits would replace them all. It\u2019s a good thing there were so many. Now everyone in that society is dead \u2014 and famous.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anne Diebel taught for eight years at Columbia. She now works as a private investigator.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Between 1908 and her death, in 1946, Gertrude Stein created over a hundred prose portraits, which she called \u201cword paintings.\u201d Most of her portraits were of her friends: Alice B. Toklas, Matisse, Picasso, Sherwood Anderson, Erik Satie, Hemingway, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Jane Heap, Carl Van Vechten, Virgil Thomson, Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia, Guillaume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[5771,10779,12956,10464,23331,3292,7185,3527,34056,3450,10254,704,1936,3891,34058,34057],"class_list":["post-125329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-alfred-stieglitz","tag-alice-b-toklas","tag-carl-van-vechten","tag-erik-satie","tag-francis-picabia","tag-gertrude-stein","tag-guillaume-apollinaire","tag-hemingway","tag-jane-heap","tag-jean-cocteau","tag-man-ray","tag-matisse","tag-picasso","tag-sherwood-anderson","tag-van-vechten","tag-virgil-thomson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGertrude Stein's Mutual Portraiture Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s something precious and annoying about these artists\u2019 mutual admiration, but also something admirably transactional\u2014you do me, and I\u2019ll do you, and we\u2019ll both benefit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gertrude Stein\u2019s Mutual Portraiture Society by Anne Diebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 14, 2018 \u2013   Between 1908 and her death, in 1946, Gertrude Stein created over a hundred prose portraits, which she called \u201cword paintings.\u201d Most of her\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-14T13:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-15T20:14:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gertrude-stein.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Diebel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Diebel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anne Diebel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5d3a675363f803e1354b5eb40b54ab98\"},\"headline\":\"Gertrude Stein\u2019s Mutual Portraiture Society\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-14T13:00:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-15T20:14:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/\"},\"wordCount\":1167,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/gertrude-steins-mutual-portraiture-society\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gertrude-stein.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alfred Stieglitz\",\"Alice B. 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