Gertrude Stein and Paris

This study day is available as both an in person and a recording only event. The recording will be made available to ALL attendees on the Monday following the event and will be available for 4 weeks.

The start of the 20th century marked a high point for the Parisian art scene. In large part this was thanks to the city’s wealthy and daring community of patrons and dealers, who enabled the experimentation of painters like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. This study day considers the achievements of one of the period’s greatest collectors, Gertrude Stein, and evaluates her impact on the development of avant-garde art.

Lecture 1 – Paris as Art Capital of the World

This lecture gives a short survey of the Paris art scene and the workings of its art studios, galleries and dealers.

Lecture 2 – An American in Paris

The second session introduces Gertrude Stein – her life, work, and place within an international art market.

Lecture 3 – Collecting the Avant-Garde

This lecture evaluates Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo as collectors, who at the start of the century shared a taste for the two greatest radicals then working in Paris, Matisse and Picasso.

Lecture 4 – Legacy

The concluding lecture reviews Stein’s long-term impact, and how the tastes of a single collector helped to shape the modernist vision of art.