Van Vechten, Carl. GERTRUDE STEIN WITH FLAG (3). Gelatin silver print on textured photographic paper, 1935. 9 5/8 x 6 1/2 inches on a mount 19 1/8 x 14 1/2 inches. Stein in front of an American Flag. 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. The photo in excellent condition; the mount darkened, stained, and chipped, but preserving the photographer's signature and annotations. Most Van Vechten photos of Stein have the stamp and annotations only; this with his signature is rare. $2750.00 [a] Images from this session, especially one of Stein smiling in front of the flag have been much reproduced, and are among the most well known photographs of her. 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.
