Portrait of gertrude stein. Gertrude Stein - godmother of the avant-garde, Hemingway's "brother" and mother of a lost generation Portrait of Gertrude

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Gertrude Stein went down in history as an innovator and literary revolutionary. This woman throughout her life carried the idea of ​​freedom from social norms, creating her own. Contemporaries openly spoke of her and scolded her for her rebellious disposition. But today Gertrude Stein is the standard of progressive thought and the pioneer of modernism. Who is she and what role has she played in the history of contemporary art?

Biography

On February 3, 1874, a girl was born in the small American town of Allegheny. She came from a wealthy Jewish family and was the second child. Her father was successfully engaged in construction and real estate trade and soon amassed a decent capital, which was enough for the children for the rest of their lives.

The girl was named Gertrude. From a young age, she showed herself as a curious child, studied well at school and, on the instructions of her father, entered college, where she studied psychology and medicine. However, all this was alien to her, and the relationship with her father was tense. Having spent her childhood between the two cultural capitals - Paris and Vienna, Gertrude Stein immediately felt a craving for beauty.

The conflict ended with the death of his parents. Gertrude and her older brother Leo were orphaned early. First, their mother passed away from cancer, then his father also died. Now the young Steins, with a huge inheritance and a steady income from the family business, were on their own.

Leo moved to Paris, where he rented a small apartment at 27 Rue Fleurus. Soon, leaving school, his sister moved in with him. It was from this moment that Gertrude's stormy creative life began.

The Steins' cozy dwelling soon turned into a bohemian orphanage. Leo was an art critic and was engaged in buying and collecting paintings by talented but not yet recognized artists working in a new direction (Cubism).

Gertrude Stein, in the circle of the Parisian intelligentsia, could boast of a high aesthetic taste and flair. She was educated, smart and at the same time sharp-tongued, so her opinion was not only listened to, but sometimes feared. She inspired and supported many aspiring artists and writers and gathered a real creative circle around her. Despite such public employment, Gertrude devoted time to her own writing genius, although she was not immediately appreciated by critics.

Eternal lover

It is known for sure about the personal life of the freedom-loving American that she preferred female society. She had many male friends, but her heart belonged only to Alice Toklas. They met in 1907 and have never parted since then. Alice traveled to Europe and in Paris decided to meet with her compatriot. The meeting turned out to be fateful. All of Paris gossiped about their relationship. It was an open challenge to society. The couple was inseparable until Gertrude's death.

Grandmother of modernism

In literature, Stein is known as an innovator. She did not think about the ease of style and always experimented with texts. Like her artist friend Picasso, Gertrude Stein was more concerned with form than with content. She was one of the first in the history of literature to use the method of a stream of consciousness without punctuation in her storytelling. It was this quality - to discover new facets of the word - that later formed the basis of modernism, and the writer herself was called the grand mother of the style.

Despite the demands of the times and traditions in literature, Gertrude Stein did not want to adapt her creations, although the sharp criticism deeply hurt the writer. She zealously wished to gain recognition during her lifetime, but contemporaries considered her strange.

Famous books and quotes

Stein's literary work is often identified with painting. Each word in the work, like a smear of paint, lays down on the paper-canvas, and each is equal. The famous books of Gertrude Stein (Ida, Three Lives) were written largely under the influence of outstanding classics (Shakespeare, Flaubert), and they also feel the relationship with contemporary writers (Hemingway, Fitzgerald), with whom she was friends, whom supported. This is a unique synthesis of European avant-garde and American flavor. In addition, poetry, lectures on literature and the famous aphorisms of the innovative writer have reached the modern reader.

Criticism

One of her first creations, written in 1909, was the novel Three Lives. Gertrude Stein spoke about three female destinies, three characters. The action takes place in America, in Bridgepoint. The narrative is rather restrained, later it received the definition of "emotional anesthesia". Critics, using the correlation between prose and painting, pointed to the influence of the French artist Cezanne in the creation of the heroine Good Anna. The free syntax and open sexuality of the heroine Melancta gave the right to refer to the friendship between Stein and Picasso. But the influence of the Fauvist Matisse is felt most acutely in the character of Quiet Lena.

In 1937, another significant book was published. It was a frank story about her life, which Gertrude Stein did not immediately decide on. "The autobiography of everyone" - this is the title of the work. On the pages of the book, the reader not only gets acquainted with the main milestones, people and experiences in the life of the author, but also with her self-esteem. The book details Stein's trip to the United States after a 30-year absence and the changes that have taken place in the country. The work is filled with playful and mysterious aphorisms, for which Gertrude Stein was so inventive. Quotes from her works, by the way, are a separate study and a puzzle for critics.

Confession

1940 was a turning point for the whole of France. The occupation by the Germans, the war temporarily paralyzed the creative life of Paris. The situation for Gertrude was complicated by the fact that she was Jewish. She was offered to leave for a while, but, being already an elderly lady, she decided to trust her fate and stay in a country house. In 1944, the alarming situation subsided, and the writer returned safely to her native Paris. However, two years later Gertrude Stein was struck down by a diagnosis of cancer. Only morphine saved from pain. On July 27, a difficult operation was ahead. Her heart of a writer could not stand it ...

During her life, Gertrude Stein never received public recognition. For all her efforts and creative experiments, she received ridicule, betrayal and disapproval. Only in the middle of the last century they started talking positively about the writer. Gertrude Stein's books have been translated into many languages, including Russian, and have replenished the golden fund of world art. And the writer herself was ranked among the classics of American literature.

Muse of Art

Her personality was multifaceted and at the same time mysterious. Stein was open to her opinions, free from prejudice, but sensitive to criticism of others. Such a controversial person simply could not remain unnoticed by the masters of art. So, (the Russian founder of mystical surrealism) used the image of Gertrude to write the canvas "Phenomena". An equally famous work is the "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" - the creation of Pablo Picasso.

The writer appears in the cinema: in the feature film Modernists (1987), in Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris (2011). The image of Gertrude is present in literary works: Hemingway's "The Holiday That Is Always With You" and Satterthwaite's "Masquerade". Over the years, music by the American composers Virgil Thompson (1934) and James Tinney (1970) was used on Stein's poetic texts. Today in New York, in Bryant Park, there is a monument to the writer.

• Many people of art of that time tried to get to the house of Gertrude Stein. Some turned to the writer for personal advice, some for support, some for “reasonable” criticism. Her famous guests were and to whom Gertrude Stein herself gave the definition of the “lost generation” - early adulthood people who could not find their place in life.
• Gertrude's older brother Leo Stein did not approve of her sister's decision to live with Alice Toklas. He expressed his protest in leaving the house on the street Fleurus and breaking the relationship with Gertrude.
• Despite the fact that Gertrude Stein was a guiding star for many aspiring art geniuses and a rich source of theoretical knowledge, she assessed her own writing talent modestly, and long hard work often did not receive any response from society at all. Disappointment was reinforced by the fact that she enjoyed the respect and admiration of her "pupils" while they were inexperienced. After gaining recognition, they often cut off friendly ties and even spoke negatively about the personality of the writer.

1906 year

Technique: Canvas, oil

More works of the year

Comments (1)

Vladimir, Gomel
08 october
It is impossible to create the full expression of what I want in a work. I dabble in it myself and I know for sure. It’s pointless to dig deeply, I know what the 25-year-old healthy man was thinking and I can’t continue. And form and colors are just Form and Colors and nothing else, because tomorrow there will be others. Again, technology.

2012

elena, podolsk
May 18
the thoughts of this woman are interesting, and also how did she interest the author? or was it an order? psychologically, like Rembrandt.

2010

demin, nn
06 November
Yes, calm enough
Hemingway wrote about her in "The holiday that is always with you"
He wrote that he remembered it differently than Picasso wrote
Although it seems that the picture was painted from his words

Art critic, St. Petersburg
August 22
Gertrude Stein was a gay lady - this was perceived calmly in Paris at that time - in my opinion, her male half is very well spelled out here. Picasso knew how to write ESSENCE, not appearance

Nadine, Novocherkassk
March 29
pictures make you think ... These are not just pictures ... you can sit over one picture endlessly ... I watch them all evening and think ... I think ... I think ...

2009

Olena, Kiev
06 december
Immediately, the portrait is not worthy of being added to the "Autobiography ..."

Alina, Balabanovo
November 22
"Among the Jews there were only three original personalities: Christ, Spinoza and I" G. Steinu

Nanali, Moscow
07 november
Pablo Picasso's talent is undeniable. Yet everyone has their own perception of it.
I wonder how Gertrude Stein reacted to this portrait?

Monumental and conservative woman who has become one of the symbols in the history of art. At the beginning of the last century, she was called the godmother of the avant-garde. Her blessings were sought by the most famous writers, poets and artists, Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne always aspired to her house in Paris, and Hemingway called her “brother”. She herself loved art and woman. Bright and controversial Gertrude Stein.

Salon of Leo and Hertha

Gertrude was born in Pennsylvania to a wealthy Jewish family. The girl's parents were an intelligent couple of immigrants from Germany. They gave their children a versatile education. The children were very friendly with each other, especially Gert and Leo, who was two years older than his sister. They will keep this affection for many years. Gertrude studied at Cambridge at the Faculty of Psychology, then at the Medical School at the University of Baltimore.

When Herta was 29 years old, her father died, leaving a very substantial inheritance, which made it possible for his children to do what they loved. Having never received a medical education, the girl goes to Paris, to her beloved brother Leo. The Steins are well versed in art, and his father's capital helps to start a new business and collect paintings. Together they open an art and literary salon in their home.

The salon brings together poets and writers unrecognized at that time, paintings by artists whose names will soon be known throughout the world are exhibited. In the meantime, Leo and Gertrude become the first connoisseurs and critics. Then the girl begins her writing career, imbued with the spirit of new, almost revolutionary trends in art. Her work of that period is considered controversial. Even my brother was very ambiguous about Gertrude's writing and tried to keep critical remarks to himself.

The Parisian elite treated the Steins with a grain of irony. Brother and sister went out for walks in strange clothes. He was a tall, thin bespectacled man with a red mustache; she is a powerful woman with inquiring dark eyes and the head of a Roman emperor, features as if carved out of marble. However, everyone was eager to get into the salon of Leo and Hertha to see an extraordinary exhibition of bold novelties. In fact, it was the first museum of contemporary art.

Give me new faces ...

Despite the fact that the Steins were considered a family with quirks, their salon soon gained incredible popularity far beyond the borders of France. The mansion on Fleurus 27 has become a favorite meeting place for artists, poets, writers, critics, as well as collectors and patrons of the arts. Gertrude continued to expand her collection of paintings. She had a natural flair for masterpieces. From hundreds of exhibits, she chose exactly that pearl, which soon became the subject of world recognition. The psychologist's gift manifested itself here as well.

Hertha could, with one exact replica, create a reputation for a writer or artist, or send his creation into oblivion. She gave a start in life to a large number of creative people, became an advisor, teacher, faithful friend and patron. Stein was on friendly terms with Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, Fitzgerald.

Young talents always gathered around her, the way for which she pushed with the stubbornness of her mother. Meeting people became a passion for her. She always said, "Give me new faces." And, probably, new impressions ...

Lesbian love

Back in her student years, Gertrude first experienced falling in love with a woman. This was a discovery for the girl, but she calmly accepted her orientation, as befits a true psychologist.

In 1907 Stein met the American writer Alice Toklas, the one who became her lover, friend, personal secretary, editor, publisher and translator.

Gertrude compared this meeting with a flash - she fell in love at first sight. Later, Alice will tell you that when she first saw Gerta, bells rang in her head. It was a sign ... Women did not hide their affection for each other, even in public. They were united not only by physical intimacy, but also by spiritual.

They lived together for 40 years in harmony and happiness, and were buried in the same grave two decades apart. Leo Stein could not come to terms with his sister's lesbian preferences, and she, in turn, with the fact that he crossed life with a street girl known as "Nina from Montparnasse." In addition, the brother and sister showed differences in artistic tastes.

He did not understand her predilection for Cubism and did not appreciate Hertha's literary experiences. The Stines dispersed peacefully and forever, dividing the collection of paintings without reproach or dispute. The breakup was "without the Apocalypse," according to Leo. The women stayed to live on Fleurus, 27, where Alisa Toklas took control of the housekeeping, giving her beloved the opportunity to engage only in creativity.

Long-awaited recognition

Stein's avant-garde orientation of poetry and prose did not find a response in the hearts of his readers for a long time. Probably, in the initial period of creativity, Gertrude directed her forces in the wrong direction, polishing the talents of others. Recognition came to the writer in her declining years, only in 1933, when she published "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas". This book was created on behalf of her beloved, witty and dynamic.

The essay was a huge success, it was reprinted many times and translated into foreign languages. Later, the poems of Gertrude Stein were put on the works of American and German composers, and her strong-willed face adorned the canvases of Pablo Picasso and Pavel Chelishchev. This woman became the prototype of the heroines of the works of Ernest Hemingway and Walter Satterthwaite. Woody Alain's films "Midnight in Paris" and Alan Rudolph's "Modernists" are dedicated to her. And in New York, a monument to the writer was erected.

BONUS

Stein did not keep up with the times, she overtook him. Even now, her reflections are progressive and relevant. Especially, the famous saying, once addressed to Ernest Hemingway: "All young people who have been in the war are a lost generation."

And one more interesting personality -.

Title, eng.: Gertrude Stein.
original name: Portrait de Gertrude Stein.
Year of ending: 1905-1906.
Dimensions (edit): 100 × 81.3 cm.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Location: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before us is one of the many works of Picasso - the portrait of "Gertrude Stein". But before taking on the analysis of the work, it is not unimportant to understand the background of its creation, because it is not without reason that it is considered one of the most dramatic short stories in the history of the creative quest of the century. Portraying the famous American writer, Picasso was on the way to another new period in his work and a whole direction in painting. “I depict the world not as I see it, but as I imagine it,” said the artist. At this time, he already obviously realized that he was going further than others in activities that were just as destructive as they were constructive. The form that the artist now creates becomes an independent structure existing according to its own laws, it does not reflect the directly perceived appearance of things, but, as it were, recreates their plastic structure. The forms created by the artist himself come to replace. Picasso freed himself from the inspiration of the Harlequin period, the Spanish part of his being took over again - the theme of the paintings began to change, and circus performers were replaced by young men and horsemen against the backdrop of bucolic landscapes. Picasso needed confirmation of his work in the general flow of world culture, he needed new impressions to enrich his creative energy. As a result of these searches in 1905-1906, the artist devotes a lot of time to the study of antiquities, visits exhibitions of classical and ancient art, he is becoming more and more interested in African masks and sculptures - he considered them endowed with magical powers and found in them the sensual simplicity of forms. This was a turning point in his work and from here began Picasso's path from depicting specific people to depicting a person as such, and to form as an independent structure. The open, almost lace style, around which there is always a lot of air, is replaced by either more compressed contours, or single sculptural masses that become more squat, with filled rounded corners, they pile on each other. At this turning point, Picasso paints the portrait of "Gertrude Stein" - his last attempt to work in obedience to nature, the final version of which determines the "African" influence. The artist took a different path.

Of great importance for Picasso during this period was his acquaintance with Gertrude Stein. She came to Paris to visit her older brother Leo in 1903, when she was almost thirty. Leo Stein, a connoisseur and collector, discovered Parisian art for Gertrude, they set up a salon business and dedicated their lives to collecting art. In America, the Steins were considered wealthy, but not rich people, therefore, starting to collect paintings by their contemporaries, they allowed themselves only inexpensive, novice artists.

After Stein acquired several of Picasso's works, she met him personally from an intermediary dealer named Clavis Sago. Since then, the American has become a loyal patron of Picasso for a long time, and he has become a regular visitor to her salon, and eventually to his personal Parisian home. Their relationship developed especially intensively during the first few years after they met. Pablo immediately, obeying a certain instinct, became interested in her - Gertrude, like no one before, influenced him. The weekly gatherings she hosted became a magnet for European and American artists and writers. Some of the visitors were young experimental painters whose work the Steins collected. In these salons, artists, writers, musicians, collectors and critics interested in progressive art and ideas could meet to talk. It was a gathering for intellectual discussion and debate, and as the number of visitors and the frequency of evenings in the salon increased, the friendship between Stein and Picasso blossomed and soon this non-trivial woman became his close friend. And although the American, in all likelihood, was never able to fully understand the artist's somewhat sullen and withdrawn character, as well as comprehend the multifaceted significance of his work, she was fascinated by the genius of Picasso and the radiant blackness of his eyes. She became more and more confident in his genius. Although her brother Leo was a close associate of the Impressionists, her taste for art became more experimental, and she became the first among the major collectors of the Cubists. Stein argued that she and Picasso worked in a parallel direction - one in colors, the other in prose, improving and enhancing their own result, transforming reality. Perhaps she felt closer to Picasso than he to her.

Picasso, shortly after meeting, offered to paint a portrait of Mademoiselle Stein, not even counting on consent. If you go into details, then in fact, Picasso was intimidated and asked Clavis Sago to find out from Gertrude if she would agree to pose, and soon she agreed. From the very first meeting, he wanted to portray this big, beautiful head in his own manner. Stein posed for him all winter, according to some sources this figure ranges from eighty to ninety times, in any case it is a significant figure. It was a little strange, because the artist wrote quickly and did not need models. Picasso has not posed since he was sixteen, and then he was already twenty-four, and Gertrude Stein never even thought of ordering her portrait, and they both have no idea how it happened. The circus people who flooded his paintings at that time lived nearby, but Picasso never had the idea of ​​asking these people to come to his studio to pose. This habit of writing from memory markedly distinguished him from the environment of painters. Some of them accused the Spaniard of being extravagant, while others accused him of causing unemployment among the sitters. Perhaps Picasso simply enjoyed being with Stein, who explained to him in detail the nature of his genius.

Gertrude walked the steep hills day after day from Montparnasse to Picasso's studio to pose for him. It was a small room, in one corner there was a couch, in the other a tiny stove for heating and cooking, several chairs, one large broken chair on which Stein was sitting, a bulky easel and an excessive amount of canvases that smelled like dog. Picasso sat down in his chair next to the canvas, used a monotonous gray-brown palette and began to create. Fernanda Olivier participated in the creative process - his passion at that time, she was a rather large woman, but at the same time very beautiful and sweet. Often she entertained Gertrude by reading aloud La Fontaine's fables, creating a mood. On the first day of posing, in the late afternoon, two brothers and friends of Gertrude Stein stopped by to see how things were going - the initial sketch turned out to be breathtaking. The sketch was so good that everyone begged Picasso to leave it as it is, not to change anything, but he irritably disagrees and stubbornly continues to work. It is a pity, but in those days it did not even occur to anyone to photograph the picture in its initial version.

The difficulties Picasso experienced in this work was not typical: eighty or ninety sittings of posing were not the principle of his work. Stein's strong personality may have been a factor in delaying the process, but neither can escape the sense of the extraordinary struggles and developmental difficulties that characterize the portrait. The original image of Stein's head was almost in profile. Gradually, step by step, he rotated it until he came to a final position, more frontal. There are no known preliminary drawings by Gertrude, and it seems that Picasso experimented with several possibilities already on the canvas itself. However, despite the fact that the portrait, to the great delight of the writer, increasingly acquired features of similarity, it did not satisfy the artist himself, and the work did not actually move from a dead center - nothing changed in the picture, except for the face. Picasso added something to the portrait, then destroyed something, painted again and painted over again. He was looking for what he himself could not define.

The spring of 1906 came and the seating came to its significant end - suddenly Picasso sketched the whole head. “I look at you and see nothing else, I am no longer able to see you,” he said irritably. So this picture was finished. Nobody, I remember, was particularly annoyed that this long sitting was over. Gertrude Stein and her brother went to Italy, which at that time had already become their habit. With Fernanda, Picasso went to Spain, where he again changes his style - he paints more soothingly, almost monochromatic, the figures become more sculptural, the faces seem motionless and like a mask, like austere archaic Iberian statues and frescoes of a chapel of the Catalan Romanesque period. An important step has been taken and it directly leads the artist into a new "African" period. Returning at the end of the summer from Spain to Bato Lavoir, Picasso finally finished painting Gertrude's face in the manner in which he usually worked: quickly and from memory (without even looking at his model), giving the appearance the character of a mask: a luminous, protruding forehead and impersonal, schematic, regular facial features. The work was completed and he was pleased with the result. Seeing the final version, Gertrude Stein was perplexed, it seemed to her that "the resemblance was gone", she considered herself too young to be like him. "Nothing," Picasso answered cheerfully, "someday you will be like him, with time." Still, the first impression was not positive, she was unhappy that after many hours of posing there was no unity, but she gratefully accepted the job. Others, shocked by the mask-like severity of the face in the portrait, were more critical. No one thought that the portrait had consonance with her. Later, after a while, Picasso's prophecy was fulfilled that in the end she would manage to look exactly the same as in the portrait - the similarity came with time, she caught up with her portrait when she grew old by two world wars. In her book, she expressed herself in the direction of work: “In my opinion, this is me, and this is the only image of mine, where I am always I”. For Stein, this painting will be proof of her irrevocable connection with Picasso, whom she regards as the greatest artist of her time. It's like a collaboration between two nascent giants: a twenty-four-year-old Spanish painter and a thirty-two-year-old American writer, two immigrants in Paris, as yet unrecognized but destined for greatness.

As for the painting itself, an interesting image is created: the portrait in front of the viewer's eyes begins to unfold itself into separate parts, which in turn form a complex volumetric composition. This is the result of Picasso's appeal not so much to the real appearance of the person being depicted as to his mental gaze and understanding - all this portends cubism, a new direction in painting, in which the artist will begin to work some time later. Picasso distracted himself from the appearance of the portrait, the face of the depicted person resembles the faces of antique statues, with the same almost empty eye sockets, because of which Stein seems to be looking from within himself, all-seeing, as if a mask covers her face. “You can't get through here” - this is the whole phrase of her appearance. Since every canvas of a real artist is an autobiography of his inner path, the portrait of "Gertrude Stein" shows what dangerous areas of the "inner city" of European culture the artist has penetrated during these nine months of intense contemplation of her appearance. The painting by Picasso depicts the whole history, the whole essence of Gertrude, her past and future. He portrayed her in a characteristic pose, the massiveness of the silhouette is rather enhanced by a loose coat with wide sleeves, large hands lying on the knees, the body slightly bent forward; she is full of attention and interest. Outwardly, Gertrude, without even realizing it, looked very eccentric. Her stocky, weighty figure and regular facial features, through which a remarkable mind shone through - all this, coupled with a man's voice, revealed a strong personality in her. The artist accurately conveyed her whole character and, trying to display on the canvas that Gertrude that would satisfy him, he tried a lot of options. Basically he is trying to solve the mystery of Miss Stein; tries to open the veils that hide her essence, and if he succeeds, then much more will open before him. This increased the conviction of Picasso that she is a creature of the depths and she will help him to penetrate these depths. Her face is a mask that strikes the imagination, black deformed eyes - unseeing or rather looking deeply, which is a hint of the force living in her. Thus, the face is depicted as large, stern, pointed and motionless, while the hands and the rest of the painting appear passive and painted in softer colors. The face, hands and scarf shine in the painting and create spatial tension. The gorgeous warm reddish-brown tone of the background enlivens the asymmetry of the seated person in the painting. The abandonment of realistic details becomes especially visible in the completely untreated ear. Her existence in the portrait is so active that it is impossible to forget this picture. Yes, she is fully represented in the portrait to make it unforgettable. As a result, the work differs somewhat from the original, but the author was able to put into it a special meaning, the character of Gertrude. The features of the model are distorted, but she radiates powerful energy, she is heavy, imperious, it seems the writer is about to quickly get up and find herself outside the canvas. The strange asymmetry of the eyes makes this strong-willed, unfeminine face restlessly nervous, forcing one to guess about a hidden, perhaps painful disharmony of the soul. The whole figure of Gertrude Stein is filled with heavy seriousness, and it is difficult to say what feelings of the artist were expressed in the portrait - either sympathy or dislike. And subtle signs of external and internal dissonance will turn into a frank challenge to the classical ideal of female beauty. The expression of contemplation, together with a distinct intelligence and mental concentration, is the predominant feature in the portrait. Picasso depicted her path. She does not hold a fan or a flower in her hands, does not wear an unusual hat, does not raise her head with feminine charm, she just leans forward, presenting only herself. With this innovative portrait, he removes himself from the boundaries of classical painting, and at the same time breaks down Stein, freeing her from traditional limitations. The portrait of "Gertrude Stein" marks a moment in Pablo Picasso's life when he examined the deep eyes of an American artist - and perhaps found an answer to the question of what it was like to be an American.

To prove her gratitude to Picasso, Gertrude Stein did not part with this portrait all her life, and in 1946 she bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. This was the first work of the artist, which was included in the collection of the museum. It now houses the richest collection of works by Picasso - the second largest in the United States. This canvas hangs there as proof of how keenly and deeply Picasso is able to see with the eyes of his imagination, rather than when he was face to face with an object.