Monday, April 8th, 2024
In Finding Sylvie, the author Gertrude Stein is Sylvie Lewis’ neighbor in Paris. Gertrude’s salon on rue de Fleurus is filled with masterworks like Matisse’s Woman with a Hat (Femme au chapeau) (1905), Cézanne’s The Large Bathers (1900–1906), and Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905-06).
Gertrude immortalizes these artists in her writings: in her poem, “Cézanne,” her short story, “Matisse,” and her book, Picasso. The artists also make appearances in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. In The Autobiography, Gertrude writes of her deep friendship with Picasso.
“I wish I could convey something of the simple affection and confidence with which he always pronounced her name and with which she always said, Pablo. In all their long friendship with all its sometimes troubled moments and its complications this has never changed.”