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<\/a><\/p>\nGertrude’s full figure, evident both from the front and back, attests to Alice\u2019s cooking and the delicacies provided by their various cooks.<\/p>\n
Gertrude sat for Davidson in his Paris studio in 1922, four years before Alice gave her\u00a0 the famous Caesar haircut, so the statue features a Gertrude with a full head of Edwardian tresses.\u00a0 The sitting with Davidson is documented in a Man Ray photograph.<\/p>\n Jo Davidson and Gertrude, Paris (1922, Man Ray)<\/p><\/div>\n The Steinian haircut may not be there, but something that is there, which is typical Gertrude, is the garment she\u2019s wearing – a cross between a Franciscan monk\u2019s robe and a fine Frette bathrobe.\u00a0 Clothes for Gertrude were all about comfort and utility with a hint of current fashion touches provided by Alice\u2019s hand. In this case she is wearing a flowing-collared blouse and brooch: \u201cLovey, please at least wear that silk blouse and add a brooch so you look a bit less like a well-fed \u00a0St. Francis of Assisi.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n And then there is the un-Miss Smith\u2019s Finishing School for Young Ladies pose, legs spread like John Wayne enjoying a whiskey at the local saloon.\u00a0 This pose undoubtedly greeted many a visitor at the evening salons at 27, rue de Fleurus.\u00a0 Almost twenty years after the sculpture was completed, Gertrude provided fashion designer Pierre Balmain direction to create her skirts wide enough to allow her to sit this way\u2026what a genius wants, a genius gets!<\/p>\n Now to Baltimore where I saw another Davidson sculpture created six years after the Bryant Park Gertrude.\u00a0 In this case it is a bust of ten year old Julian Stein, Jr. who was in Paris with his parents, Julian, Sr. and Rose Ellen. They were visiting cousin Gertrude who often referred to Julian, Sr. as her favorite cousin.\u00a0 Young Julian\u2019s sitting is also documented by Man Ray and involves a story about measles which may be the subject of a future post!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>