Who was Gertrude Steins favorite painter in 1931?
Was it still Picasso? BOWLES: Yeah, of course. VETSCH: Because he had made that famous portrait of her in 1906? BOWLES: Oh yes; it was in the room. It was done from memory. I mean he painted her, and then he took it home and looked and didn’t like the face, and he painted the face out. Then he decided to paint her as he remembered her, but not as she looked. That’s how he made the famous painting, I think. Because the face is in a different style from the rest of the painting. The rest was done from life, but the face was done from memory. That’s what’s interesting about it, I think. VETSCH: In her Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas she wrote that Picasso once said about this painting, “Everybody says that she does not look like it but that does not make any difference, she will.” Do you think she resembled her idealized portrait? BOWLES: Yes, I think she did. VETSCH: When I look at the photographs of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, I see Alice always in the background, like the serv
