Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

FROM PARIS TO NAGYBÁNYA - PARIS - EMESE PÁPAI: The Stein Family in Paris

Leo Stein with the first pieces of his collection, 1904 Leo, Gertrude, Sally, Michael and Allan Stein with Theresa Jelenko in Paris, late 1903 „We is doin business too we are selling Jap prints to buy a Cézanne at least we are that is Leo is trying [sic!],"

9 Gertrude Stein wrote. They were saving money in order to be able to buy the portrait of Cezanne's wife (1886-1888), which was considered the most important composition by Cézanne in the Stein collection. We do not have a full list of all the paintings by Cézanne in the Steins' possession, and not all of their purchases are documented. On top of the works mentioned so far, they owned a small-scale still life with some plastically executed apples (1877-1878), a graphical study made in preparation for Man with a Pipe (1892-1896) and at least five water-colours, among which the portrait of the peasant smoking a pipe seems to be the most noteworthy. The rest of the water-colours were landscapes, including two depicting the view of St. Victoire.

10 Fernande Olivier, Picasso's girlfriend, later recalled that she had seen many watercolours in Gertrude Stein's salon, including a number of the type of "bathers outdoors".

11 The water-colours were probably purchased around 1905, when Vollard organized the first exhibition of Cezanne's water-colours. In those days, the Steins' collection had more works by Cézanne than the Luxembourg Museum, which specialized in modern art, but had not a single water-colour by Cézanne then. Although Leo and Gertrude conducted their acquisitions together, independent observers suggested that, with the exception of a couple of paintings by Picasso, Leo had the ultimate word in choosing the artworks to be purchased.

12 Between 1904 and 1908 he bought a large number of artworks, typically for less than 200 dollars each, with the exception of Cezanne's works.

13 Gertrude made her first acquisition, a landscape by Alexander Schilling, in 1902 in the United States. The sister and brother were often accompanied by Sarah and Michael on their regular rounds of inspecting the galleries. The couple bought their only piece by Cézanne at the auction of the Vian collection, paying 200 dollars for a portrait of the painter's son, Paul. Save a few exceptions, they specialized almost exclusively in works by Matisse, and it was the painter and his circle of personal friends and private collectors that constituted the main attraction of their salon. From the viewpoint of acquisition policy, Leo and Gertrude Stein made two very important discoveries, in addition to Cézanne. They became acquainted with Matisse and Picasso, the two artists between whom, according to a comment made by Leo years later, "there was no fusion".

14 In her book The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias, Gertrude gave a detailed account of how they had come by their first piece by Matisse, La femme au chapeau (Woman with the Hat), at the Automne Salon of 1905.

15 Subsequently to this, Henri Manguin introduced Leo to Matisse, and later the former looked up the painter in his studio on Couvent des Oiseaux. After a long conversation, Leo finally bought a drawing from Matisse. The artist made a very good impression on him: "He was also witty, and capable of saying exactly what he meant when talking about art [...] a rare thing with painters,"

16 he said about Matisse later. "The thing that Matisse has as his dominant character is clarity [...] I can't speak of the clarity of his color or form properly, but rather for me his color & form result in a total expression for wich clarity is the best term."

17 In the beginning of 1906 Matisse completed one of the major pieces of his early career, La Joie de Vivre, which Leo bought for 1,200 francs, a record price at the time. In 1906 and 1907, Leo and Gertrude bought several pictures and sculptures from the painter, including Margot, Nu bleu, Music and other compositions, while the other major pieces of the period were mainly owned by their sister-in-law, Sarah Stein, who was among Matisse's first students and took a lion's share in organizing and financing the painter's school.

18 Although Leo continued to follow Matisse's career, after 1907 he no longer purchased his works, because he disliked the painter's flat, decorative works, being convinced that his new style after Fauvism was a mistake. In his view, the synthesis in the painter's style took place only later, after his Cubist period; the artist he knew before had the mind of a seeker, meant in the positive sense.

19 Leo bought their first Picasso from the art dealer Clovis Sagot in 1905. Gertrude could not stand the painting, which was entitled Family of Acrobats with Monkey.

20 She had an equally poor opinion of Young Girl with a Basket of Flowers, the painting they bought next, because she "found something rather appalling in the drawing of the legs and feet, something that repelled and shocked her."

21 It was Henri-Pierre Roche who first took along Leo to Picasso's studio on the Montmartre. The young and extremely talented painter, taciturn and all eyes, made