Gertrude Stein: Lessons from Paris’ Most Fearless Muse & the Golden Age of Creative Living

Louise Sommer
1 day ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 hours ago

Paris is a State of Mind

There are cities you visit, and there are cities you live in. And then there is Paris; a place you inhabit with your soul.

To walk the cobbled streets of Montmartre or the Left Bank is to wander through time, brushing shoulders with the ghosts of artists and writers who defined entire epochs. One of the most iconic of them all, in my opinion, is Gertrude Stein.

She wasn’t just a writer, a collector, or a cultural connector. She was a force. A woman who lived her life with fearless originality and carved out a space for art, identity, and the audacity to live differently. And if you’ve seen Kathy Bates channel her wit and wisdom in the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris, you already know: Gertrude Stein was something else. Below is a clip from the movie where you really can feel the love Bates puts into her character of Gertrude Stein.

Gertrude Stein: The Living Canvas

Born in America but reborn in Paris, Gertrude Stein was a creative nucleus of the 1920s. She gathered the minds that would shape modern art and literature, from Picasso to Hemingway, in her legendary salon at 27 rue de Fleurus. She was not simply a host but a catalyst, challenging artists to think deeper, create bolder, and live more truthfully.

But Gertrude wasn’t just a patron of other people’s genius. She was a bold innovator in her own right, breaking literary conventions and reshaping how we understand narrative and form. Her writing, like her life, refused to fit into anyone else’s expectations.

A Salon of Bold Beings

Imagine walking into a room where modernism was being invented in real-time. That was Gertrude’s salon. On any given evening, you might encounter Pablo Picasso arguing with Matisse while Hemingway scribbled notes for A Moveable Feast. Stein's salon wasn’t just a social gathering. It was, in fact, a crucible of cultural revolution.

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She believed in the power of art to transform. She believed that creative people needed each other. And she wasn’t afraid to be at the center of it all; a woman, a lesbian, an American expat, a writer whose sentences danced to their own rhythm.

In a world still trying to tame women, she hosted the wild.

Authenticity Without Apology

Gertrude lived openly with her life partner Alice B. Toklas at a time when such love stories were whispered, not celebrated. Their relationship, both deeply private and vibrantly public, is a testament to living boldly and lovingly in a world not yet ready to understand.

In a time when women were often expected to be muses or footnotes, Gertrude Stein was the headline. She didn’t ask for permission. She didn’t water herself down to fit expectations. Instead, she built her own universe and invited the most brilliant minds of the time, to come play. She was the embodyment of inclusion.

Lessons in Creative Living

Gertrude Stein teaches us that to live creatively is not merely to make things. It is also about making, and holding space, for creativity within ourselves and our communities.

She teaches us to:

Live our truths, even when they scare people.
Gather our own salons (online, in our homes, wherever ideas are welcome.)
Trust our voice, even when it doesn't follow the rules.
Be fearless in art, love, and life.

Her life reminds us that creativity isn’t about being polished; it’s about being present. It’s about choosing your own rhythm and dancing it into being.

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A Golden Age Reborn

We often look back at the 1920s as a golden age of art, writing, and revolution. But what if the golden age is now? What if we’re being called to host our own salons, to build creative homes, to live lives that feel like art?

Gertrude Stein didn’t just belong to Paris. She belongs to every creator who dares to live out loud. So here’s to her. And here’s to you.

Let’s talk: If you could host your own salon, who would be in the room? Drop a comment below!