EUGENIE (1826-1920)

Lot 161
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Estimation :
800 - 1000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 1 690EUR
EUGENIE (1826-1920)
2 L.A.S. "E" and "Eugenie", Camden Place, Chislehurst September-December 1879, to Jean-Baptiste FRANCESCHINI-PIETRI, in Paris; 10 pages in-8, envelopes (mourning). Letters to the former private secretary of Napoleon III, about Protais' painting of the Imperial Prince, killed by the Zulus in June 1879. 1 September. She first alludes to a polemic in Le Gaulois on a question that "is so dear to her heart. The painting of PROTAIS [The Dead Prince] unfortunately is of such a nature as to upset me; I would never have the courage to look at it, as he did not fight. But this whole affair was done in reverse, it was 1° a simple drawing to be engraved and kept in the prayer books and by no means a painting that one has constantly before one's eyes! Little by little things have changed and I fear that despite all the poetry I lack the courage to do it"... December 16. She asks for precise information about the plans for the chapel, and the portrait of the Emperor by M. André. She wishes that Franceschini-Pietri sees Protais: "I would like to know what I owe him for his painting that I would like to call the field of the rest, because he knew especially how to return a calm that I hardly find that in front of this painting! and to know from him if he believes to be able to make the other one that I asked him"... She would not mind if he exhibited it at the Salon. "The uniform is on its way, we wanted to send it to the tailor to be put in order... I promised not to see it so that it would be returned to me intact, because it would be a profanation to touch it! I was promised not to send it there. However painful the visit to Paris was for me, it would have been almost impossible to refuse under the conditions it presented itself! It is the continuation of this fate that pursues me. I would have liked to arrive in time to close the eyes of my mother "... One joined a set of 10 L.A.S. of painters to Franceschini-Pietri. Eugene fromentin (3). August 6 [1869], about an interview with Napoleon III, who asked him about his travels, Algeria and Kabylia: "the welcome of His Majesty, the gentleness, the exquisite affability, the incomparable good grace of his look, of his voice, this admirable way of questioning me about myself, penetrated me with gratitude and really touched me"... August 12 [1869], on his promotion to the Legion of Honor. January 9, 1873, reaction to the news of the death of Napoleon III: "it is a patriotic pain, a personal and deep mourning"... Jean-François Millet. Barbizon August 18, 1868, thanking for "your gracious reception & your generous intervention with the Emperor for Theodore Rousseau and for me", and asking to express to him "my moved thanks & my ardent desire to do good by the beautiful & the true, in his service & for his glory"... Alexandre protais (7), 1879-1880, very interesting, about Eugenie's orders, transmitted by the Duke of Mouchy and Prince Charles Bonaparte: two drawings of subjects "unfortunately very out of my genre"; he describes his "small painting" of the dead Prince, interesting as a "sleeping face", but as for a representation "where it will be necessary to put the life, the heroic courage and the thought of the last hour", it would be necessary to think, and he waits for documentation, in particular for a photography promised by the Empress... Provenance: former collection FRANCESCHINI PIETRI (Fontainebleau 1st April 2012, n° 3).
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