Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. Few can be said to have had as broad
an impact on European art in the twentieth century as these two cultural
giants. Pablo Picasso, a pioneering visual artist, created a prolific
and widely influential body of work. Gertrude Stein, an intellectual
tastemaker, hosted the leading salon for artists and writers between the
wars in her Paris apartment, welcoming Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway,
and Ezra Pound to weekly events at her home to discuss art and
literature. It comes as no surprise, then, that Picasso and Stein were
fast friends and frequent confidantes. Through Picasso and Stein's
casual notes and reflective letters, this volume of correspondence
between the two captures Paris both in the golden age of the early
twentieth century and in one of its darkest hours, the Nazi occupation
through mentions of dinner parties, lovers, work, and the crises of the
two world wars. Illustrated with photographs and postcards, as well as
drawings and paintings by Picasso, this collection captures an
exhilarating period in European culture through the minds of two
artistic greats.