Questions and Answers

Today, one hundred years ago, the moving van arrived at 27, rue de Fleurus and Alice B. Toklas’s belongings were unloaded and she moved in with Gertrude Stein!  They had first met almost three years before to the day.  Since that meeting, coming to ’27’ on a daily basis became a part of Alice’s routine and though she had undoubtedly begun to assume some household responsibilities during that period, she had most notably become the primary typist of Gertrude’s manuscripts.

Alice had been living in an apartment on rue Notre Dames des Champs within walking distance of rue de Fleurus with her San Francisco neighbor Harriet Levy.  When Harriet decided to return to San Francisco, she asked Alice to handle shipping her furniture and paintings including a Matisse.

As their lease had not yet ended, they had agreed to continue to pay rent until the end of the term, however, the landlord insisted that according to French law it was illegal to leave the apartment unfurnished. Gertrude’s brother Leo helped Alice handle these matters.  In her memoir WHAT IS REMEMBERED she stoically recalled her move:

“Leo helped me with the French letters to the lawyer to make certain that I was making it clear to him.  And with that I moved to the rue de Fleurus where I was given the small room that later we called the salon des refusés.  There I spent that winter and the following one not too uncomfortably.”

Alice’s room had been Leo’s study, but later as the salon des refusés it served as the room where works by artists who had fallen out of favor with Gertrude were hung.  Leo would remain in the household for about another three years though he travelled extensively to Italy and England during that period. (When Leo finally moved out, he and Gertrude were no longer on speaking terms after a falling out because of a number of issues including financial ones. Dividing up the painting collection created even more animosity between them.)

It is fun to imagine what Alice’s move-in day may have been like. The dogs were not yet part of the household, but I’m sure there was plenty of excitement even without those four-legged family members running about.

When GertrudeandAlice sent boxes of manuscripts and letters to Yale for safekeeping beginning in the late 1930s, it was discovered that they’d also sent various household receipts and  miscellaneous lists.

So, what if among the papers was a list Alice had written mentioning a number of items that were to be moved that September 9th, 1910?

“9.9.10

*  25 hat boxes – enough said!

* 10 steamer trunks – 2 summer apparel, 2 spring apparel, 2 winter apparel, 2  fine, exquisite dresses, 2 shoes

* 5 wooden crates with items for the kitchen including Grandmother Levinsky’s Dutch oven

* 6 wooden crates – fine china, silver, crystal-VERY FRAGILE!

* 1 oak sideboard (difficult to dust, but lovely.)

* 1 cherrywood rocking chair with horsehair upholstered seat and back. Needs repair, get recommendation from Sarah Stein

* Gas table lamp to be converted to electric….”

Once Alice had settled in, her daily schedule became well established.  Even though he did not meet GertrudeandAlice until 1925, Virgil Thomson remembered life at 27, rue de Fleurus in his 1966 autobiography:

“Alice Toklas neither took life easy nor fraternized casually.  She got up at six and cleaned the drawing room herself because she did not wish things broken.  (Porcelain and other fragile objects were her delight, just as pictures were Gertrude’s; and she could imagine using violence against a servant who might break one.)  She liked being occupied, anyway, and did not need repose, ever content to serve Gertrude or be near her.

She ran the house, ordered the meals, cooked on occasion, and typed out everything that got written into the blue copybooks that Gertrude had adopted from French school children.  From 1927 or ’28 she also worked petit point, matching in silk the colors and shapes of designs made especially for her by Picasso.  These tapestries were eventually applied to a pair of small Louis XV armchairs (chauffeuses) that Gertrude had bought for her.  She was likely, any night, to go to bed by eleven, while Miss Stein would sit up late if there were someone to talk with.”

Happy move-in day Alice and let’s hope none of the porcelain arrived chipped or there will be hell to pay!

Tagged 27 rue de Fleurus, Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein, Harriet Levy, Virgil Thomson