If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso

Gertrude Stein wrote "If I Told Him : A Completed Portrait of Picasso” in 1923. It was first published in Vanity Fair in 1924 and she subsequently published it in her collection Portraits and Prayers. This poem was part of a multi-decade intertextual dialogue between Stein and Pablo Picasso. Stein was one of the first to exhibit Picasso’s paintings at her weekly salons at 27 rue de Fleurus. In 1906, Picasso completed a portrait of Stein, and the following year, she wrote her first literary portrait of Picasso, titled “Picasso.” Over a decade later, when the two were no longer working as closely together, she wrote this second portrait, notable for its non-representational style.

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  Stein sitting in front of paintings at 27 rue de Fleurus, including Picasso's painting of her

Further reading

• Picasso's Portrait of Gertrude Stein, Poets.org

External links

• Text and audio by author, courtesy of University of Pennsylvania