
Jane Sommerich (Stanford class of 1935) and Robert Motherwell, March 30, 1934.
The photograph was taken in either Monterey or Carmel, California.
Autumn 1935
Motherwell attends a cocktail reception at the home of Michael and Sarah Stein in Palo Alto, where he sees works by Henri Matisse, an experience that electrifies him and deepens his passion for modern art. He begins a two semester independent study with Albert Guerard where he first reads the works of the French Symbolists (Baudelaire, Valry, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé) and contemporary American modern poets (Crane, cummings, Eliot, Pound, Stevens and Moore).