Lot n° 14
Estimation :
5000 - 7000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 2 600EUR
LA FRESNAYE ROGER DE (1885-1925)
16 L.A.S. "Roger", of which 3 with drawings, [circa 1910-1915?], to his cousin Georges de MIRÉ, at the castle of La Fresnaye near Falaise; about 60 pages in-8 and in-4, most of them in his own name, 2 envelopes (some slight tears and traces of folding)
Very beautiful correspondence to the one whom Roger de La Fresnaye considered a brother and his closest friend. [Georges de MIRÉ (1890-1965), a painter himself, was one of the first collectors of African art; La Fresnaye painted his portrait in 1910 (Metropolitan Museum). The letters, mostly undated, span the years 1910-1915. The painter reveals himself with sincerity and humor, and lets himself go to free confidences; he does not hide his torments nor his feeling of failure, and reports his worries with his model,
Marie Valentine, who is also his mistress, and makes him scenes. He evokes his work, his life in Paris with concerts, dinners and meetings, the solitude in his studio in Beauvernay. One finds the names of gallery owners and publishers (Bernouard), of colleagues and friends: Desvallières "very nice"; Van de Velde, "a man quite amazing in his intelligence and activity" who had to take care of the "Théâtre Montaigne" (future Théâtre des Champs-Élysées); Paul Vera, with whom he collaborated "for a bedroom: Abel Truchet; Jean-Louis Gampert; André Mare; Paul-Élie Ranson, whose Academy he attended; Robert Delaunay, "the simplest being I know and one cannot resist the pleasure of retorting unpleasant things to him. Only he has ideas, a rare thing, because that is sometimes compatible with crapulerie"; Charlotte Gardelle; the couturier Poiret, etc. Tuesday evening: he attends a "pretentious reading of our "Poet-man-of-the-world", and ends his letter with the drawing of an outstretched hand... Thursday 16: he goes to the workshop "to make my layers of a statue whose conception, I believe, advances. Unfortunately the earth is dry... Thursday evening: "What Desvallières told you about the brigands corresponds to his passion for the literary meaning of a painting. He is working "on the molding and the "finishing" of my statuette and my relief" He had to "re-cut everything, repolish, re-grease". Beauveray, Saturday evening [1910]. He returns from his trip and marvels at the beauty of the region; he works on his statue and hopes that it will be ready for the Autumn Salon: "I find myself still without a guide in front of my land and the idea that I have in mind. I am very, very afraid of falling back into a poor, anemic sculpture, literary in a word". He also did "drawings in Indian ink and with a brush to illustrate Tête d'Or. I try to illustrate the drama by taking my inspiration only from the things that the poetic images that abound in it can evoke. The illustration would thus become like an accompaniment in harmony with the spirit of the text. He intends to send to the Salon "your portrait, my large canvas and my landscape of Munich". He finds himself "very happy enough" and is pleased that they have "the chance to understand each other on many points: let's try to understand each other on everything, to deserve our mutual trust to be really two friends"... Saturday, March 11 [1911]: he saw Maeterlinck's L'Oiseau Bleu, of which he criticized the staging: "I would have preferred to be inspired by the Russian spirit by applying it to our habits. Tuesday [March 14, 1911]: he saw Bernouard who "will gladly take my bas-relief, but declares that he understands nothing about my landscape. I am offended. [...] My God, Georges, I see no way out of my life! How I suffer! Not a true affection, not a being to whom to entrust myself entirely. [Georges, Georges, I have neither talent, nor happiness, nor willpower ! I would like to die..." Monday, March 27: "I have resumed my autumn landscape. And just as eating gives me an appetite, so did the ideas of volume and mass come to me while working. .... Meulan, Sunday, August 4: he lunches with Henri "back from Saint-Raphaël where he went to attend the tests of the hydroaeroplane Nieuport", and takes a drive "on the blessed banks of the beautiful Seine" whose harmony he praises... La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Monday evening: drawings of the three movements of the breaststroke: "The water after the storm is deliciously warm: no surprise, no seizure; but why must the creator have endowed me with an extraordinary density and never yet noticed by the swimming instructor? It must be the genius". He is going to leave with regret "this white little town [...] and this café, a cavern filled with the mysterious and innumerable treasures of Pernod, Picon, Vermouth, Byrrh, etc. I have now had 4 absinthes before each meal: my talent is increasing rapidly! Sunday: dinner at Ranson's, where he was bored and amused himself by observing the maitres d'hôtel, "two Hercules": "Sérusier
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