Gertrude Stein Art Collector

I often hear people say that they cannot afford to collect art. This always reminds me of the story of Gertrude Stein. From 1904 to 1913 Ms Stein gathered the first great collection of modern art in her apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus, Paris France. The collection included Gauguin’s sunflowers and  three of his Tahitian paintings. a number of Cézanne’s including ‘the bathers’, Delacroix’s Perseus & Andromeda, Matisse’s Woman with a hat, various Picasso’s including a portrait of Ms Stein that now hangs in the Metropolitan museum of art in New York.  Other artists she collected include: Toulouse Lautrec, Henri Manguin, Pierre Bonnard and Honoré Daumier. 

Gertrude also hosted saturday evening art soirées in her apartment where such notables as  Henri Rousseau, Georges Braque, Andre Derain, Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire and Ernest Hemingway could be found.

For a riotous an opinionated account of Ms Steins time in Paris before the first world war I would recommend the book she wrote in the guise of her lover: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. I would recommend also Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast.’  The moral of this tale is simple, you can afford to buy art, just buy what you like at the price you can afford. Buy now, what are you waiting for? www.artbytonybulmer.com