Three Queer Jewish Women as Seen by Artist Chantal Joffee
During Pride Month, Communications Intern Morie Tiange Dong reflects upon the legacy of Gertrude Stein, Claude Cahun, and Susan Sontag, the subject of portraits at the Jewish Museum by British artist Chantal Joffe
In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in June, the Jewish Museum reflects upon the legacy of three important queer Jewish women — Gertrude Stein, Claude Cahun, and Susan Sontag — whose portraits by London-based artist Chantal Joffe are currently on view in Scenes from the Collection. Originally commissioned as part of a series depicting Jewish women of the 20th century for the Jewish Museum’s 2015 exhibition Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe, these intimate paintings commemorate the major accomplishments and deep imprints of three unique women on LGBTQ history and the world at-large.
Gertrude Stein
American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania to an affluent Jewish family. She moved to Paris to join her brother, Leo, in 1903, where she embarked on a literary career producing works dealing with homosexual themes. Under the influence of Leo, already a prolific art collector in Paris, Gertrude thus began her own life-long pursuit in art collecting.
The Stein siblings amassed a large collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, thereby helping several then-aspiring artists such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. In addition to being a major patron of the emerging Cubist art movement, Stein also appropriated this style in her own writing. She boldly rejected the linear, time-oriented writing characteristic of the nineteenth century for a spatial, process-oriented literature. Though critical opinion is divided on Stein’s writing, she was one of the first pioneering queer women in contemporary literature, as well as an important patron of modern art.
Joffe’s portrait presents Stein as a gender-neutral figure, dressed in androgynous clothing. Set within a gallery setting standing next to a glass of wine, the painting stresses Stein’s identity as an art collector. Her left hand is in her pocket, indicating comfort and command of her own environment.
Claude Cahun
Born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwobb, Claude Cahun (1894–1954) was a French writer, photographer, Surrealist, and performance artist, known for her gender-ambiguous self-portraits.
Jewish on her paternal side, the then-Lucy was sent to boarding school in England by her father who wanted to protect her from rising anti-Semitism in France. Upon returning at the age of 15, she met Suzanne Malherbe, who would eventually become her stepsister, lifelong companion, and collaborator. She published her first collaboration with Malherbe in 1914 under the pseudonyms Claude Corlis and Marcel Moore.
By 1917, she settled on the gender-neutral pen name Claude Cahun and began to write and contribute widely to French publications. In her autobiographical book Aveux non avenus, Cahun narrated her life journey of self-discovery. Cahun actively and outwardly rejected social constructions of gender and sexual identity. To her, identity was mutable. As an active participant in the avant-garde theater of Paris in the 1920s, assuming new identities came naturally to Cahun. In her photographs, she presented herself in various personas: as men, women, and androgynous characters. Her works resonated with the progressive idea that gender is socially constructed through performative acts, as suggested by contemporary feminist scholar Judith Butler, also a queer female of Jewish descent.
In Joffe’s portrait of Cahun, many details—from the subject’s pose to the shaved off hair — imply this painting was inspired by Cahun’s self-portraits.
Susan Sontag
Known for her profoundly influential books On Photography and Against Interpretation (which includes the essay Notes on “Camp”), American writer Susan Sontag (1933–2004) was also a prolific filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist.
Sontag fought for the freedom of expression and the liberation of imprisoned writers. As a queer activist, her influence within and beyond the LGBTQ community left an indelible mark on history, especially as the AIDS epidemic began ravaging New York City in the 1980s. Sontag determined to break down the stigma of homosexuality through a series of persistent campaigns and writings.
Joffe’s painting of Sontag is a direct appropriation of an iconic photograph taken by queer photographer Peter Hujar, also part of the Jewish Museum collection. In the photograph, Sontag seductively reclines in a turtleneck sweater and gazes contemplatively into space. The pose reflects her liberating spirit and conveys a sense of intimacy with the photographer, who was also a close friend. Hujar died due to AIDS complications in 1987, and Sontag’s book AIDS as Metaphor was published only two years later, adding yet another layer of historical and personal significance to the image.
“I think about women and their thoughts and ideas, and I suppose when I’m painting them I’m getting to be them, in a sense. That is why I paint women.” — Chantal Joffe
Like the three women depicted in her paintings, Joffe embraces femininity, but subverts traditional gender stereotypes. In her rejection of the idea of a gender dichotomy, Joffe’s paintings celebrate a multitude of female identities to explore far beyond the given definitions of womanhood.
— Morie Tiange Dong, Communications Intern
To learn more about Chantal Joffe and LGBTQ works in the Jewish Museum collection, visit TheJewishMuseum.org/Collection.
