As the butch doyenne of the Parisian Salons, Gertrude Stein captures the heart of Picasso in that context and gives insights on how Picasso worked as an artist and why Cubism came about in the way that it did. Also, this portrait of Picasso contains pretty clear description of Cubism and reveals a lot about relationship between Picasso and Stein without revealing a lot of actual events in either of their lives. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright and art collector, best known for Three Lives, The Making of Americans and Tender Buttons. Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life. Picasso and Cubism were an important influence on Stein's writing. Her works are compared to James Joyce's Ulysses and to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.