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The Evolution of Picasso's Portrait of Gertrude Stein*

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The Evolution of Picasso's Portrait of Gertrude Stein* LUCY BELLOLI The evolution of Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein* Vi, 7A~' 11. Portraitof GertrudeStein, by Pablo Picasso. 1906. 100 by 81.3 cm. (MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York). BEG UN in the autumnof 1905, Picasso'sportrait of Gertrude returned from G6sol in mid-August, he completed the paint- Stein (Fig.11) was the result of eighty or more separate sit- ing in the absence of his model. Both Picasso and Stein were tings. In April 1906 Picassopainted out the whole head, and pleased with the results, as she records in TheAutobiography of soon after both painter and sitter (Fig.12, seen here in a AliceB. Toklas:And when she saw it he and she were content'. photographtaken five years earlier)left Paris.'When Picasso Stein's well-known account has given rise to much speculation *I shouldlike to thankthe entire PaintingsConservation Department of the Metro- digitalintegration of the hand-drawnoverlays. politan Museum of Art, New Yorkfor assistancein writingthis article,and particu- 1G. STEIN: Picasso,London [1939], p.8. See also J. RICHARDSON,with M.MCCULLY: A larly:Hubert von Sonnenburg,without whose interestthis informationwould not LifeofPicasso, I, New York[1991], pp.434-35. have been published; Maryan Ainsworth, for thoughtful comments; Charlotte 2G. STEIN:The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas[Harcourt Brace and Co., New York, Hale and Chris McGlinchey.Ellen Pratt photographedthe autoradiographsand 1933], reprintedin SelectedWritings of GertrudeStein, New York[1990], p.53. Alison Gilchrestwas responsiblefor the tonal adjustmentof them, and for the 12 Burlington Magazine is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Burlington Magazine ® www.jstor.org PICASSO'S PORTRAIT OF GERTRUDE STEIN aboutthe creativeprocess that led to the finalpainting. Ques- tions have arisen about the appearanceof the initial sketch, the changes or difficulties that might explain the many sittingsneeded to complete the work, and the stylisticinflu- ences that lay behind the creationof the face. The handling of Stein's compelling image betrays an uneasy mixture of two differentstyles: within this discrepancy,and in partic- ular, in the handling of her face, lies the future direction of Picasso'sart. The difficultiesPicasso experiencedin painting this work were not typical: eighty or ninety sittings were hardly his modusoperandi. Stein's powerful personality may well have been a factor in protractingthe process,3but one cannot escape the sense of unusual struggleand laboured progress that characterisedthe executionof the portrait.The purpose of this article is not to explore these biographical or art- historicalissues, but ratherto investigatethe developmentof the picture itself. Using the evidence of X-radiographsand autoradiographs,it is possible to look at the images Picasso discardedon his way to completing the portrait,and to re- create some of the steps in the evolutionof the work. After a quick sketch executed at the first sitting,the artist seemsto have had difficultycontinuing in a simpleand direct way. Numerous changes were made to the head, and minor ones to the right hand, shouldersand background.Initially Stein'shead was almost in profile.Picasso graduallypivoted in frontaland vertical it until it came to rest its present,more INI position. In spite of (or perhaps because of) his frequent J'-w reliance on preliminarydrawings, Picasso's paintings often prove,on examination,to containchanges, which can be var- ious in characterand degree.4The alterationswe see in the portraitof GertrudeStein are concentratedin the area of the .......... head, and they have somethingof the qualityof preliminary studies, much like those made for the 1906 Self-portraitwith ..........iiii palette(Figs. 13 and 14),where variousangles and expressions are tried out. There are no known for ....... .... preliminarydrawings 12. GertrudeStein in c. 1901. Photograph(Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript the GertrudeStein, and it seems that Picassoexperimented with Library,Yale University,New Haven CT). severalpossibilities on the canvasitself. It has been possible to recapture the discarded images throughthe use of two complementaryanalytical techniques, the incentive to include the portraitin an autoradiography X-radiographyand neutron activationautoradiography. In project largely concerned with Rembrandt,Van Dyck and 1970 an X-radiographwas taken of the area of Gertrude Vermeer, carried out by Maryan Ainsworth and others in Stein'shead in the painting(Fig. 15)." It indicatestwo finished 1978.6 The autoradiographsmade of the GertrudeStein form a heads, the firstalmost in profile.With characteristiceconomy set of eight. Of these, nos.5 and 8 together contain most of of means, Picasso employed the same general position for the information concerning the changes to the painting. what had been the right eye to create the 'new' left eye in the The clarity of autoradiographno.8 (Fig.20)is due in great final head, the one we see in the completed painting. How- measure to the radioactive element of phosphorus found ever, the X-radiograph also shows multiple foreheads and in bone black, a pigment which Picasso used to make the cheeks, pointing to the possibility that other positions for the initial sketch.This image gives us a sense of the rapidityand head had been considered. surenesswith which Picasso sketchedin the folds of Stein's The information obtained from the X-radiograph, to- jacket - unlike the face, where the initial sketch has been gether with Stein's description of the many sittings, provided obscuredby subsequentchanges. 3For one interpretation as to the nature of Picasso's difficulties, see R. LUBAR: 'Un- whereby a mild and transientradioactivity is induced by exposure to a beam of masking Pablo's Gertrude: Queer Desire and the Subject of Portraiture', Art Bulletin, thermalneutrons for a shortperiod of time. Beta particles(electrons) emitted in the LXXIX [1997], p.56. decay of the radioactiveelements of the paintingare recordedon photographicfilm. 4For the most recent discussion of the topic of changes in Picasso's work (but not A series of autoradiographsis made up of consecutiveexposures, initially of short including the portrait of Gertrude Stein), see A. HOENIGsWALD: 'Works in Progress: duration then increasing exponentially,with the final exposure lasting for one Pablo Picasso's Hidden Images', in Picasso The Early Years,1892-1906, exh. cat., month. Because the radioactiveelements within the painting have differentdecay National Gallery of Art, Washington [1997], p.298. times, differentimages are produced within the series, giving a descriptionof the 5The X-radiograph was taken by Hubert von Sonnenburg, Chairman of the Paint- paintingprocess. This techniquedoes not indicateorganic pigments, which are not ings Conservation Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. radioactive,nor densermolecular weight pigments such as those that arelead based. 6This research was undertaken at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, with contri- For a full discussion,see M.AINSWORTH et al.:Art andAutoradiography: Insights into the butions from Maryan Ainsworth, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann,John Brealey and Genesisof Paintingsby Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Vermeer,Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pieter Meyers. Neutron activation autoradiography is a non-destructive technique New York[1982]. 13 PICASSO S PORTRAIT OF GERTRUDE STEIN Ali g 'N" 14. Studiesfor Self-portraitwith palette, by Pablo Picasso. 1906. Pencil on paper,31.5 by 47.5 cm. (Mus6ePicasso, Paris). Is---Li i . .. ii ...... ."............ ...... .. has to be reconstructed.We have assumedthat the position ..ii.•......... ......... .... furthestaway from the final one was the first. In this initial placement, Stein'shead (Figs.20and 17) was almost in pro- file,with her left eye only partiallyvisible. The top of her head was tilted slightlytowards the viewer and was placed much furtherto the right, with the ear and hairline,as well as the outline of the coiffure,correspondingly shifted. A diagonal line that crosses the present chin delineated the neck, and the various lines around the chin indicate that Picasso had initiallyplaced it lower and furtherto the right. Other positions of the head are not so readily apparent, 13. Self-portraitwith palette, by Pablo Picasso.Autumn 1906. 92 by 73 cm. (Philadel- but a clue to sorting them out is provided by the repeated Museum of phia Art). notationfor the right nostril.In autoradiographno.5 (Fig.16) thereare fourindications of it: one in the firstposition already described, one in the final position, and two others visible on the bridge of the final nose. These nostrilsand multiple of the forehead show that Picasso turned the v,"', z-, W, 1 profiles PRO!! head towardsthe viewer to a point midwaybetween the first and final positions, raising the face. Indicationsof this 'sec- :::I it s 4F? I,: po ond' position (Fig.18) are the top nostril, a new forehead . .. profile,a differentcheekbone, the top lip, an indicationof a right eye and a notationalline under the chin to indicatethe ......... NN: neck. Other changes that must have occurredto the ear and ?x fill hairlinein shiftingthe head are not apparent,but have been markedhere with dotted lines. In what can be called a 'third'position, Picasso lowered and tilted the head, turning it slightlyto the viewer'sright. This is indicated by both eyes and a strongly drawn right nostril The lines of the left cheek and forehead are wool (Fig.19). not too differentfrom the 'second' position, except for
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