☙ Picasso

1938 - Gertrude Stein

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☙ Picasso

✑ Gertrude Stein

PICASSO

Published in 1938 by Librairie Floury in the Anciens et Modernes collection, this small volume represents far more than a simple artistic monograph. It constitutes Gertrude Stein's direct and intimate testimony about her friend Pablo Picasso, whom she knew from 1905 onwards and whose works she collected with her brother Leo. Written in Stein's characteristic style, with its rhythmic repetitions and deconstructed syntax, this text proposes a radically new approach to art criticism, where the writing itself attempts to reproduce the formal upheavals of Cubism. Stein does not merely analyze Picasso's work: she creates a literary portrait that functions as a verbal equivalent of the artist's pictorial experiments. This book is all the more precious because it comes from someone who witnessed firsthand the artistic revolution of the early 20th century, welcoming Picasso, Matisse, Braque and so many others to her Parisian salon on rue de Fleurus. For collectors, this is an essential historical document, the first monographic work on Picasso by a privileged witness to his trajectory.

Why add it to your collection?

First book entirely devoted to Picasso by his intimate friend and collector Gertrude Stein, direct testimony of a major 20th-century artistic relationship

Original French edition published in the prestigious Anciens et Modernes collection by Librairie Floury, sought after by bibliophiles

Revolutionary text blending art criticism with Stein's experimental style, fundamental document for understanding the emergence of Cubism

Rare piece on the modern art book market, particularly prized by collectors of Picasso publications and the rue de Fleurus circle

Exemplary witness to the legendary friendship between two giants of modernism, Stein having been among the first to recognize Picasso's genius

Description

Historical context and genesis of the work

Gertrude Stein's Picasso appeared in 1938, at a pivotal moment in European history and the painter's career. Stein had already published a version of this text in English in 1938 with Batsford in London, but the French edition from Librairie Floury belongs to a prestigious Parisian publishing tradition. The Anciens et Modernes collection aimed precisely to establish bridges between masters of the past and revolutionaries of the present, a positioning perfectly suited to Picasso who, in 1938, was already recognized as one of the greatest living artists. The friendship between Stein and Picasso dated back more than three decades, during which time the American writer had accumulated an impressive collection of works by the Spanish master and had sat for one of his most famous portraits in 1905-1906.

Literary style and critical approach

What fundamentally distinguishes this work from traditional art monographs is its resolutely experimental style. Gertrude Stein applies to critical writing the same principles of deconstruction and reconstruction that Picasso applied to painting. Her sentences, with their incantatory repetitions and destabilizing syntax, seek to capture not the appearance of works but their dynamic essence. Stein refuses classical narrative linearity in favor of a circular, cumulative approach, where ideas overlap and respond to each other like planes in a Cubist canvas. This method, sometimes disconcerting for readers accustomed to conventional analyses, nevertheless offers profound insights into the revolutionary nature of Picasso's work.

Bibliophilic importance

The 1938 Floury edition represents a sought-after collectible for several reasons. First, Librairie Floury enjoyed an excellent reputation for the quality of its artistic publications. Second, copies of this edition have become relatively rare on the market, particularly in good condition. The modest format of the volume, typical of Floury editions, makes it a manageable but precious object, witness to an era when Parisian art publishing radiated internationally. For collectors of Picassiana or publications related to Gertrude Stein's circle, this work constitutes an absolutely essential piece, connecting two major figures of modernism in a unique dialogue between painting and experimental literature.

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