“One sees what one sees”: an introduction to Gertrude Stein English 434 Spring 2015

In Paris in 1905, the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso is studying some African masks in which the human face is represented by a simple disc with the eyes, nose and mouth added on as separate geometric elements. At the same time, he is trying to paint a portrait of his American friend Gertrude Stein. After ninety posing sessions, he still doesn’t have the face right.

So he goes on vacation alone, taking with him nothing but the painting and a head full of African shapes. And there it happens:

Gertrude understands what she is seeing. As she will later explain in her book Picasso (1938):

And as to Guillaume Apollinaire...

French poet, Coiner of the term “surrealism.” Here he is in his World War I corporal’s uniform with one of his many wounds. He will die during the great flu pandemic of 1918, on the day the war ends. The last thing he will ever hear is the cheering crowd beneath his hospital window chanting about the downfall of Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II: “A bas Guillaume!” -- that is, “Down with Guillaume!”

Here is his poem about the beginning of the war.

And here, by the American surrealist photographer Man Ray, is a picture of Gertrude with her portrait by Picasso. As you see, the portrait doesn’t look anything like the real Gertrude.

But are you sure, now, that you know what “looks like” means? Or “real”?