“Baptized Spanish”: Gertrude Stein and the Making of a Spaniard

As early as 1901—but especially after meeting the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1905—Gertrude Stein imagined Spain as a birthplace of modernism, invoking a close American–Spanish relationship to symbolize how old traditions might be transformed into modern art. Unfortunately, the close connection between Stein and Spain has been overshadowed in literary criticism by the very categorization of Stein as chiefly an American modernist and expatriate who lived in Paris. However, the transnational trajectory of her writing career was as much American–Spanish as American–French, and the Spanish influences are much more interesting and relevant to her work. While much attention has been given to the Stein–Picasso relationship, few critics acknowledge the Spanish influence and the style that emerged thereafter—and with this, the recognition that Spain was a crucial setting of twentieth-century modernism.