Mina Loy, Gertrude Stein, and Portrait Historie

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Portrait Historie is an art genre in which subjects posing for portraits were traditionally painted as biblical, mythological, or historical figures, and was often used to reflect on cultural, social, familial, or personal associations the sitter wished to present to a public/audience. This paper examines the ekphrastic possibilities of poetry to act as a kind of portrait historie, particularly in Mina Loy’s 1924 poem, “Gertrude Stein,” where she paints the famous writer as the Marie Curie “[o]f vocabulary,” and so addresses the historical relationship between women and their use of this art genre as a way to express themselves politically. This paper also explores the ways in which this kind of poetic portraiture can be read as feminist empowerment.