GAUGUIN Paul (1848-1903)

Lot 58
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Estimation :
5000 - 7000 EUR
GAUGUIN Paul (1848-1903)
Autograph letter (minute) addressed to Léonce BRAULT S.l., [April 2? 1903]. 2 pages in pencil folio on one page (torn and frayed margins). Gauguin has just been convicted and presents the case to his lawyer and friend, Léonce Brault, for his defense, less than a month before his death. Gauguin had denounced to the Marquesas administrator, Constable Guichenay de Tahuata, who was taking bribes from American whalers; the latter charged his colleague from Ivaoa with suing Gauguin for "defamation of a gendarme in the performance of his duties"; Gauguin was sentenced on March 31, 1903, to three months in prison and a fine of 55 francs under the Press Act; he immediately charged his friend the Tahitian lawyer Léonce Brault (1858-1933) with his defence, but he died on May 8.] "At the beginning of February I had sent a letter to the Admiralty of the Marquesas asking him to investigate the goods landed by the Constable of Tavata from the whaling ships to find out whether they were in order, otherwise it would be an outrageous conduct. Everybody here knows the whaling captains who have landed a very large number of goods saying that the constable had enough grease on his leg. ...] What I wanted to do was to exercise my right to demand an investigation, especially since some natives have been convicted for having received soap money etc. instead of money, or even payment for prostitution". The administrator, instead of conducting the investigation, asked the constable to make sure that it was in order; and Gauguin then rewrote to the administrator, "declaring that the investigation had not been ordered and carried out, I considered the constable to be a perfectly honest man", and withdrew his complaint.... "On this in the course of February the brigadier a rude person came to threaten me with many things among which to sue me for defamation of the gendarmerie". He informed the administrator of these threats, but was sued: "I was convicted. I'm appealing"; he s
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