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Pierre Tal-Coat
Pierre Tal-Coat, Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), circa 1930

circa 1930

About the Item

Pierre TAL COAT (1905-1985) Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), circa 1930 Pencil on Paper Signed lower right Numeroted “962” verso 21 x 18 cm The son of a Breton fisherman, Pierre Louis Jacob, known as Pierre Tal Coat since 1926, was born in Clohars-Carnoët (Finistère) in 1905. He began drawing in 1918 as an apprentice blacksmith. Starting out as a ceramics painter at the Quimper earthenware factory in 1924, he drew in pencil, charcoal and pastel on the theme of the Breton countryside. He moved to Paris the same year and made regular visits to Brittany. He became friends with Gertrude Stein, Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara and Antonin Artaud, among others. By 1935, he was a member of the Forces nouvelles group, alongside artists such as Georges Rohner, André Marchand, Robert Humblot and Jean Lasne. In 1941, he took part in the seminal exhibition Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française organized by Jean Bazaine at the Galerie Braun in Paris. During the Second World War, he took up residence in Provence, at the foot of Mont Sainte-Geneviève, before returning to Paris and the Montparnasse district. In 1947, the artist took part in the exhibition Painting in France 1939-1946 at the Whitney Museum in New York, where his works were noticed by the American art critic Clement Greenberg. The artist gradually moves away from the motif. He joined the Maeght gallery in 1954, before settling in a large studio in the Eure region of France, where from 1960 onwards, he began to transform his painting. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Grand Palais in 1976. In the 1930s, Pierre Tal-Coat painted many portraits of people close to him, including Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). A feminist writer and poet of American origin, she spent much of her life in France. A true aesthete, she set out to conquer modern art, helping to disseminate the work of major avant-garde artists of the early 20th century such as Pablo Picasso, who painted a famous portrait of her in the Metropolitan Museum (ill.1). Pierre Tal-Coat painted and pencilled several portraits of Gertrude Stein in the 1930s (ill.2). The most famous is in the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris (ill.3). The Musée du Luxembourg in Paris devoted an exhibition to her in 2013: “Gertrude Stein et Pablo Picasso. The invention of language.”
  • Creator:
    Pierre Tal-Coat (1905 - 1985, French)
  • Creation Year:
    circa 1930
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 8.27 in (21 cm)Width: 7.09 in (18 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Very good condition, a few tiny traces of folding, microscopic stains visible on the photos.
  • Gallery Location:
    PARIS, FR
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2661215515932

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