'Woman With A Hat' marks the beginning of Modern Art

Inglis Carre', M.F.A.

Special to the Village News

I spend extra time standing in front of Matisse's "Woman With A Hat" every time I go the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I study her big dark eyes which looked on as Modern Art took its first awkward steps, and I wonder if she had any idea of the cataclysmic effect that would be produced by her debut showing in 1905 in Paris.

When Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo, first came to Paris from California, they strolled into the Grand Palais to see the controversial works of a group of painters insultingly called the Fauves, or "Wild Beasts."

They were repelled by the jarring colors and crude brushwork of the paintings on display. Leo called "Woman With A Hat" "the nastiest smear of

paint" he had ever encountered. Yet, Gertrude and Leo returned many times over the next several weeks to look at it. They ended up buying the painting from Matisse for 500 francs – about $100.

"Woman With A Hat" gave birth to a famed collection of cutting edge art of the time that brought together the key ideas and artists that ignited the Modern Art movement.

Following the hanging of "Woman With A Hat" in the Steins' Paris apartment, experimental artists, poets, and writers began to congregate there, along with Gertrude's brother, Michael, and his wife, Sarah, who also began to collect the new art.

The famous rivalry between Matisse and Picasso began in the Stein's living room in 1906. The profound influence of African art on Pablo Picasso grew from a small African sculpture of a head that Matisse showed him at the Steins.'

In addition to Matisse and Picasso, the Steins collected Renoir, Gauguin and some early Cezannes. When these artists' prices rose too high, Gertrude collected younger artists such as Juan Gris, Andre Masson, Francis Picabia and Sir Francis Rose.

Two world wars depleted the collections of the various Steins, who had to sell many paintings to cover their living expenses. When Gertrude needed to finance a trip to Spain during the war with her lifetime companion, Alice Toklas, she sold "Woman With A Hat" to her brother, Michael and his wife for $4,000. It is now part of the Sarah and Michael Stein Memorial Collection at SFMOMA.

Inglis Carre', M.F.A., is an artist and Creative Power consultant, specializing in the development of individuality and self-expression. She can be reached at [email protected].