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

Michael Stein and his family with Matisse and Hans Purrmann (to the left) In the background pieces of the Matisse collection a deep impression on the art collector, who made up his mind to introduce the painter to his sister. "Gertrude loved Picasso."

22 Her "critical interest in art and literature was awakened by her personal problems in writing. The Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso pictures that I bought were of great importance to her in respect to her work. "

23 This was especially true in the case of Picasso, whom Gertrude regarded as her soul mate, being convinced that concrete analogies existed between her own literary work and the painter's style. They remained friends even after Leo's departure. During their first visit to the Bateau Lavoir, Leo and Gertrude spent 800 Francs on the works of Picasso, then still a completely unknown artist.

24 In addition to Two Women in the Bar, The Absinth Drinker, Woman with a Fan and other important pieces, they bought Boy Leading a Horse, the major work of the period. The nearly one hundred sessions Gertrude spent in Picasso's small and uninviting studio during the winter of 1905-1906, sitting for her own portrait, undoubtedly played an important part in the formation of mutual sympathy between the two. Around 1905 and 1906, Gertrude and Leo were equally fond of Matisse and Picasso, whom they held in equally high esteem. However, following the birth and the rising popularity of Cubism around 1910, Leo, who had a more conservative taste and firmly set principles, began to lose interest in modern art; he became disillusioned and started to behave in an increasingly passive manner at the Saturday gatherings, to the point that he eventually abandoned altogether the pioneering role he had voluntarily undertaken previously. In the meantime, Gertrude started to collect Picasso's early Cubist works. At this stage, Gertrude's more flexible attitude, her openness to all things new, became apparent, making it possible that, after Leo's departure from the scene, she could become the familiar matron-type figure of the salon on rue de Fleurus. Leo's favourite painters, Manet, Degas, Renoir and Cézanne, impressed the visitors of the salon, while Matisse's La femme au chapeau, along with the Cubist paintings of Picasso, Braque and other artists, convinced the majority of the guests that modern art had reached a dead-end and become frivolous. "In those early days when everyone laughed, and went to the Steins' for the fun of it, and half angrily, half jestingly giggled and scoffed after they left [...] Leo stood patiently night after night wrestling with the inertia of his guests, expounding, teaching, interpreting."

25 The usual notion the Hungarian public entertains about the famous Stein salon is at variance with this picture, as the Hungarian painters who visited the place were equally impressed by the collection of paintings and the atmosphere they found there, retaining warm feelings about it in their recollections for the rest of their lives. In all probability, the salon had a great deal more Hungarian connections than it appeared to be the case from a study of contemporary documents. Gertrude Stein talked of a good many Hungarians, who turned up in her home "in all sizes and shapes."

26 Géza Bornemisza's recollections have revealed that, among other people, he paid a visit to the salon on rue de Fleurus,

27 probably in the company of his friend, Vilmos Perlrott Csaba, both being Matisse's students. Besides these two artists, Róbert Berény, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok,

28 András Mikola,

29 and the sculptor Béni Ferenczy

30 were all frequent guests at the salon. Since Matisse was welcome in the homes of both Steins, it seems very probable that his students, including the Hungarian ones, also visited both places, while others could hear about the salons in rue de Fleurus and rue Madame in the rest of the free schools of Paris. The collection featured works by Cézanne, Matisse, Degas, Picasso, Manguin, Daumier, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vallotton, Delacroix and others, as well as some compositions by Leo, including several portraits of his brother, Michael. In addition to the modern artworks, a number of paintings and antiquities from the Quattrocento were seen among the Renaissance furniture of Italian origin. The other curiosity of the salon was the installation of gaslights, which amounted to something of a rarity in those days. "[In the home of the Stein family] outsiders might easily have imagined themselves in a public gallery; no one paid any attention to them. People came in and out, and Leo Stein never moved from his favorite position: half-reclining in an armchair, with his feet high upon a shelf of his bookcase."

31 Parties were held on Saturdays in both places. They began on rue Madame at 9:00 p.m., and then continued on rue de Fleurus afterwards.

32 Among the regular guests of the latter salon were Picasso and Fernande Olivier, Braque, Rousseau, Matisse, Apollinaire and Marie Laurencin, Epstein, Max Jacob and others. "[...] people who came there out of snobbery soon felt a sort of discomfort at being allowed so much liberty in another man's house."

33 Besides the collection, the hosts themselves contributed to the spectacle at the parties. "He, with a professorial air, bald, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. A long beard with reddish highlights, a shrewd eye, a large, stiff body given to strange positions and unfinished gestures. The exact type for a German-American Jew. [Gertrude was] stout, short, solid, with noble features, emphatic and regular and intelligent, clairvoyant, lively eyes. Her voice and her whole behavior were masculine."

34 Leo usually wrapped himself in a kimono, while Gertrude was generally dressed in velvet. Both of them were content, comfortable and un-