Gertrude Stein Monument
overview
Many New York City public parks and playgrounds are named in honor of prominent figures in New York City and American history. In addition, there are memorials that honor LGBT individuals.
The Gertrude Stein Monument, in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, honors an LGBT individual.
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Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, at their home in France, 1945. Photo by Carl Mydans. Source: LIFE Magazine Collection.
Gertrude Stein posing for sculptor Jo Davidson. Photo by Man Ray. Source: Vanity Fair, February 1923.
Gertrude Stein Monument in Bryant Park. Photo by Amanda Davis/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2021.
Gertrude Stein Monument. Courtesy of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.
Gertrude Stein Monument. Courtesy of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.
History
Many New York City public parks and playgrounds are named in honor of prominent figures in New York City and American history. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project compiled a list of public parks and playgrounds named after gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals, several of which intentionally honor an LGBT individual. In addition, there are memorials that honor LGBT individuals. This list includes the Gertrude Stein Monument, in Manhattan.
This monument, dedicated in 1992, in Bryant Park honors the pioneering expatriate American author and art collector Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), one of the world’s most famous lesbians. It was the first statue of an American woman placed in a public park in New York City. Born in Pittsburgh, Stein moved to Paris in 1903 and lived in France for the rest of her life. She met Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967) in 1907, and they lived together as partners after 1910. They famously hosted a salon in Paris that was attended by the leading modernist figures of art and literature. Stein amassed a significant contemporary art collection. Stein’s literary canon included poems, novels, plays, librettos, lectures, essays, biographies, and film scripts. In 1933, she published The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, a memoir of her Paris years written in her partner’s voice. It became a bestseller, and elevated her into mainstream fame. She also wrote the libretto for the opera Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), with music by Virgil Thomson. Early unconventional Stein works that included lesbian relationships were Q.E.D. (1903), Fernhurst (1904), and Tender Buttons (1914).
Stein posed for sculptor Jo Davidson at his Paris studio, and he completed the model depicting a Buddha-like Stein in 1922. Stein was delighted by the portrayal. This particular bronze casting of the statue, located near the New York Public Library, is the eighth in a series of ten. It was the gift of Dr. Maury Leibowitz, vice-chairman/president of Knoedler-Modarco Galleries.
Entry by Jay Shockley, project director (September 2021).
NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.
Sources
“Gertrude Stein Monument,” NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, on.nyc.gov/3o0oADs.
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