Van Vechten, Carl. GERTRUDE STEIN AND ALICE B. TOKLAS - FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS. Gelatin silver prints on textured photographic paper, 1935. Each 9 5/8 x 6 1/2 inches on a mount 19 1/8 x 14 1/2 inches. The photgraphs are as follows: 1. Alice B. Toklas, New York. Toklas seated in front of a drapery. Signed by Van Vechten in ink on the mount, recto, just below the image, and annotated, verso, as follows: "Alice B. Toklas, New York" in ink, and with the photgrapher's stamp with the date "January 4, 1935" and an inventory number in ink. $2800.00 2. Gertrude Stein, New York. Three photographs, one of Stein standing in front of an American flag, and two differing poses of her seated in front of the flag. All three signed in ink on the mount, recto, and inscribed and stamped on the verso as with the Toklas. Images from this session, especially one of Stein standing and smiling in front of the flag have been much reproduced, and are among the most well known photographs of her. Each $2200.00 3. Gertrude Stein, Bilignin, France. Stein, head and shoulders, with a landscape and mountains behind her. Not signed, but inscribed and stamped, verso, with the date June 13, 1934. $1800.00 All of the photographs in excellent condition, all of the mounts with stains, discolorations and chips at corners and edges. While all remain unsold, the photos may be purchsed separately, as priced above, or as a group.The Group. Copies of similar images from this sitting are in the New York Public Library collection. On October 23, 1934, Stein and Toklas arrived in New York on the S.S. Champlain, and accepted an invitation to dine with Van Vechten and Fania Marinoff Van Vechten the following night. This was at the beginning of a lecture tour from which Stein and Toklas returned to New York on January 2, 1935. An image from the January 4 sitting showing the photographer and Gertrude and Alice in front of the same drapery as in the photo of Alice appears on Page 378 of Volume I of the Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten. The lecture tour resumed, with Stein and Toklas going as far as California, returning to France on the Champlain finally on May 11, 1935.
