The alternative title for Pearlstein's painting is Melanctha, a novella published by Gertrude Stein in 1909. In the novella which the painting is referencing, the story of sexual liberation among Victorian morals through experimental storytelling of hetero-and-homo-sexual relationships emerges (“Melanctha Summary"). Often writing in a stream-of-conscious style, Stein represents the new art movement of Modernism. Modernism, which Stein was a pioneer for, was a response to the socio-cultural impacts of the industrial revolution through the rejection of realism. Ironic as it is that Pearlstein would reference an art movement against his own style, this reference was dated before Pearlstein began to focus on his realism style. Pearlstein recognizes the similarities between them. Where modern art fails to depict the actual, realism is successful. Stein, through her stream-of-consciousness style of writing, is able to depict the events, the real, and the imagined clearly and concisely within her framework, similarly to Pearlstein. A rendition of Two Nudes on a Beach exists and is titled Melanctha by Gertrude Stein. It is estimated to have been painted in 1948-1949. Both edits contain a masculine figure looking at a feminine one. The feminine figure does not look back and thus the painting reads as resistive to constricting one's sexuality, as in heteronormative standards, as they are simply two people, nude, on a beach, sharing equal space. In the earlier rendition, the feminine figure is much whiter and clothed, possibly representing Stein herself.

“Melanctha Summary.” SuperSummary,  https://www.supersummary.com/melanctha/summary/#:~:text=Melanctha%20is%20one%20of%20three%20novellas%20in%20Gertrude,story%20of%20assertion%2C%20emotional%20responsiveness%2C%20and%20sexual%20liberation\. Accessed 18 Mar 2023. 

Pearlstein, Philip. Two Nudes on a Beach (Melanctha by Gertrude Stein). 1948-1949. https://philippearlstein.com/work/early-work/1949-two-nudes-on-a-beach-m.... Accessed 29 Mar 2023.