Object Details
- Artist
- Jo Davidson, 30 Mar 1883 - 2 Jan 1952
- Sitter
- Gertrude Stein, 3 Feb 1874 - 27 Jul 1946
- Exhibition Label
- Born Allegheny, Pennsylvania
- American expatriate writer Gertrude Stein was a high priestess of early-twentieth-century modernism for the many who visited her fabled Paris apartment. She collected and promoted the art of the avant-garde, including that of Picasso and Matisse, and her own abstract, repetitive prose inspired the experiments of playwrights, composers, poets, and painters. “There was an eternal quality about her,” sculptor Jo Davidson wrote. “She somehow symbolized wisdom.” He chose to depict her here as a “sort of modern Buddha.” Delighted by the sculpture, Stein composed one of her famous prose portraits of Davidson, later published in Vanity Fair alongside a photograph of this work.
- Provenance
- Morris P. Leibovitz [1917-1992]; gift to NPG 1978
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Dr. Maury Leibovitz
- 1922-23
- Object number
- NPG.78.196
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Sculpture
- Medium
- Terra cotta
- Dimensions
- Object: 76.2 x 57.8 x 62.2cm (30 x 22 3/4 x 24 1/2")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- 20th Century Americans: 1900-1930 (re-installation 2012)
- On View
- NPG, South Gallery 322
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Jewelry\Medallion
- Gertrude Stein: Female
- Gertrude Stein: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Poet
- Gertrude Stein: Arts and Culture\Patron of the arts
- Gertrude Stein: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Librettist
- Gertrude Stein: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Art collector
- Gertrude Stein: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Novelist
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.78.196
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm41cfc0626-c374-4f67-95e7-d9f8206d2459
