27 Rue De Fleurus

Yesterday Matisse invited me to a gathering on 27 Rue De Fleurus so I could meet some of his friends like Renoir, Picasso, and Cezanne. How exciting would that be to just meet up with a group of well known artist. Especially Picasso. with his abstract and complex art! Well that is Gertrude Stein, an  American writer who moved to Paris in 1903. She was a literary innovator and pioneer of modernist literature. In addition, she was a collector of modernist art and was good friends with many artist including Matisse and Picasso.



"Gertrude Stein". Pablo Picasso.Oil on canvas.39 3/8 x 32 in. (100 x 81.3 cm)The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In New York.

The lost Generation was a time period where Parisians lost guidance in society. In traditional French society, the church and government usually served as a way to show people how their life should be and gave them a bit of structure. However, after World War 1, many people died and some came back home disabled, without an arm or leg. Many people lost their family members and were left alone in a city that was trying to recover from the war. People lost hope and faith after losing loved ones. Also many people started to experience a variety of things that varied from sexual experimenting to experimenting on writing structure.

Gertrude Stein is a good example of the people who started to experiment different things. For instance, she was a lesbian and in a city where religion was a part of society homosexuality was not morally right however she had a lifelong companion, Alice B. Toklas. She wrote The autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, in Toklas voice which reflected memoir of her Paris years. In a way this was weird because an autobiography is the life of the person writing it but in this case Stein wrote it for Toklas. Also in her writing she rejected linear, time-oriented characteristics of writing from the 19th Century. This shows how her writing shifted to a different structure just like other writers including Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway in, The Sun Also Rises, uses the iceberg theory where he leaves you thinking and confuses you. Overall, in my opinion the changes many people faced in Paris was a result from not feeling comfortable or in better words not feeling connected to their cultural heritage, which led them to trying new things.

"Ernest Hemingway, Paris, 1924" by Not specified, owned by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

I wonder why Gertrude Stein moved to Paris. Yesterday in the seminar many said maybe because Paris France accepts diversity and being different. I mean you can see it during the lost generation. Many people broke away from rules and morals set by the church and government authority. They became different and unique from other generations. It is true that the United States is different and diverse but in the history of the United States many people were not accepted or treated right due to the fact that they different. Maybe it still is around till this day many are systematically oppressed without knowing it. When I was younger I was told to go back to my mother country because of the color of my skin and the way I talked. It was hard for me to feel accepted and as a result I started to change. Although I knew that I was an American citizen, I would not speak Spanish at home or take the lunch my mother made me to school. I was rejecting my culture just to be accepted in society. Now that I have grown and learned more about my culture I am proud of who I am and I don't want to change that. The lost generation lost their cultural heritage but the new generations following them have improved and accept different people. This is what I want. I want to experience acceptance for who I am. To be welcomed to a beautiful city and admire its history and art by connecting everything that I have learned in this past month and a half to the things I will see in Paris. Why do you think Gertrude Stein moved to Paris?

-Rebeca