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(Small) 4to. Altogether 5¾ pp. on 7 ff. 2 letters with autogr. address. I) 10 January 1810, to E. Hutin, rue Neuve St Eustache, 32, sending him a copy of a letter he has received from the Bishop of Strasbourg (Jean Pierre Saurine, 1733-1819) concerning the non-payment of a debt by a third party to Janvier. - II: 21 February 1810, to the same. The affair has a defect; Janvier hopes to avoid a judgement. - III: 6 May 1815, to Jacques René Tenon (1724-1815, surgeon, Member of the Institute), concerning a vacancy in the section 'Mécanique' at the Institut. The sheet has been heavily scored through with a resulting ink-burn (with minor loss), running diagonally across the letter. - IV: 26 October 1823 Claude Pierre Molard (1758-1837, mechanician, member of the Institute) soliciting his support in the forthcoming election of a mechanician to replace A. L. Breguet, deceased. - The four letters presented here are all unknown to biographers of Janvier and cast new light on the circumstances of his bankruptcy in 1810, on his acquaintances and collaborators, and on his efforts to gain admittance to the Institut de France.
4to. 2 pp. To the collector Tony (Antonia) Kirchhoff in Wiesbaden, written while taking the waters at Baden, Switzerland. Jawlensky writes about about a trip to Basel, where he organised an exhibition of his paintings and attended a Marcel Gromaire exhibition: "[...] Ich war nur 3 Tage in Basel bei Im Obersteg. Es war schreckliches Weter, ich habe grosse Schmerzen gehabt und musste vieles, wegen meinen Bildern, machen. Bei Im Obersteg, das Haus, ist noch viel schöner geworden. Sie waren ganz reizend zu mir. Ich habe für mich immer ihr Auto gehabt. Beim Prof. Barth, Direktor der Kunsthalle, habe ich alles über meine Ausstellung arangiert. Es war dort eine Ausstellung von Maler Gromaire, Franzose, sehr, sehr schön. Nach Baden hat man mich mit dem Auto gebracht [...] Ich bin hier in sehr gutem Hotel, wo Sacharoffs auch sind. Nach einigen Bädern habe ich starke Reaktion bekommen und muss heute liegen. Leiden muss ich viel. Sacharoffs schicken Ihnen allen Ihre Grüsse. Sie erzählen mir so viel Interessantes über Orient: Sie waren doch so lange in Japan, China, Egipten und s.w. Überhaupt, ich bin sehr glücklich, dass ich hier mit Sacharoffs bin [...]". - Jawlensky was very close to the Wiesbaden collector Heinrich Kirchhoff and his wife and Tony; the relationship ended abruptly when it became known that Jawlensky and his frequent sitter Tony had been having an affair.
Folio (ca. 275 x 327 mm). 12, 5, 13-37, 15 pp. Ink on staved paper by Néocopie Musicale with 3 systems of 4 staves, as well as 10 staves respectively. In contemporary red wrappers with handwritten cover-title. One of Jolivet's first major works, which remained unpublished until 1989 (Salabert), described by the French violinist and leading interpreter of Jolivet's works, Devy Elrih (1928-2012), as "embracing a new musical language, and a reinvention of notation for violin and piano, as well as the relation of the two". Elrih goes on to characterize the composer's intention to "express himself free of any references to earlier works in this domain [...] as a 27-year-old man, full of life, lyricism and determination". - The sonata, with a duration of 13 to 15 minutes (as noted by Jolivet at the head of the manuscript), comprises three movements: "Ramassé", "Librement", and "Bousculé". The first movement also appears in the prelude of the 1930 work "Prélude et Grave pour violon et piano", revised in 1932 (K 44). Following the first movement (pp. 1-12), the second movement (pp. 13-17) was crossed out in crayon, page 13 bearing the note: "Refait: voir ondes, no. 1 des 3 poèmes pour ondes", referring to the 1935 composition "Trois Poèmes pour ondes Martenot et piano". The revised version of the second movement (paginated 1-5) is inserted between the first movement and the crossed-out second movement. The third movement comprises pp. 18-37. In the 15-page part for violin adjacent to the piano score, the second movment (pp. 6-7) is also crossed out. The violin part includes fingerings added in a different hand. - Analyzing the piece, the musicologist Lucie Kayas concludes that "the whole sonata produces a feeling of heterogeneity of the consecutive tonal, modal and dodecaphonic keys, as if, in contrast with the manner shown by the polytonal works of Jolivet's early youth, an idea of collage prevailed, now through juxtaposition rather than mere simultaneity". - The first movement was performed at the Société Nationale on 2 December 1933 by Gisèle Kuhn and Raoul Visa, while the complete sonata premiered at the Société Nationale on 9 February 1935 with André Huot (violin) and Olivier Messiaen (piano). - With three stamps of the "Societé des auteurs, compositeurs & éditeurs de musique", dated 26 June 1934 (one rather faded), as well as one stamp of the "Commission d'examen des bulletins". Several corrections and annotations in crayon and pencil. Wrappers with several small flaws; spine rebacked with tape. Kayas, André Jolivet (Paris, 2005), pp. 115-117.
225 x 185 mm. Framed and glazed. Showing him in conversation with Hugh Burnett, the plinth of a bust showing behind him, at a tea-table. - The haunting phrase "Arcana Publicata Vilescunt", which may roughly be translated as "secret knowledge when published is made profane", is to be found on the title-page of the first edition of the "Chemical Wedding" of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616), an alchemical allegory by the early Rosicrucian and later Silesian father, Johann Valentin Andreae, and edited by the aptly-named Johann Friedrich Jung. The teasing inscription on this photograph refers to the fact that it was Hugh Burnett's programme, "Face to Face", that brought Jung into contact with a mass audience for the first time. One of the viewers of the programme, Wolfgang Foges, contacted Burnett's interviewer, John Freeman, and asked him to contact Jung to sound him out about the possibility of writing a book explaining his views for the intelligent general reader rather than the specialist. Freeman conducted two interviews to this end with Jung, but was met with a firm but polite refusal. Jung then had a dream in which he was speaking in a public forum to 'a multitude of people who were listening to him with wrapt attention and understanding what he said'. When asked by Foges if he would reconsider, Jung agreed, on the condition that it consisted not just of his own writings but included essays by his closest followers, and was to be edited by Freeman. The result, which was to appear after Jung's death, was "Man and His Symbols", 1964 (cf. Deirdre Bair, Jung: A Biography [2004], pp. 619-620).
4to and 8vo. Altogether 4 pp. on 2 ff. With two typed envelopes. To John Schikowski (1867-1934), editor of the Berlin magazine "Vorwärts", about hostility toward abstract art: "Various opponents who remained silent for several years have become courageous again by various processes and are happy about the almost universal reaction that overwhelmed the arts. But mostly they are happy because they can again write about the arts in their ancient, superficial tone [...] The attitude that abstract art has value merely as arts and crafts and can produce only pure ornamentation has become the received point of view. The latter, for example, was claimed by Carl Einstein in the 'Propylaea Art History' where he discussed my work [...]" (15 May 1926; transl.). In his letter of 13 October, Kandinsky discusses Schikowski's book on modern dance in detail. - At the time John Schikowski was considered one of the best critics of modern art and modern dance.
4to. 1 p. With typed envelope, 3 photos made by Lucia Moholy, and some addenda. To art historian R. W. P. de Vries in Hilversum, sending four photographs for publication ("3 of which were made for you and the fourth belongs to me, I've had it in stock"; transl. from the German original). - Three of the four mentioned photos (all with the photographer's stamp on their reverse) belong to "Einige Kreise 1926", "Spannung in Rot 1926", and "Akzent im Rosa 1926"; the fourth picture seems to be returned as Kandinsky has asked to do so. - Additional addenda comprises a copy of "Der Sturm" (vol. III, October 1912, no. 129), in which Kandinsky's long essay "Ueber Kunstverstehen" ("On Understanding Art") was published, 4 newspaper clippings with reviews of his exhibition at the gallery "L'Époque" in Bruxelles, and another contemp. photo of a painting by Kandinsky.
4to. ½ p. To "Dear Mr. Nicholson", agreeing with him and his colleagues Messrs. Gabo and Martin, promising to send a photograph of his work "Developpement en brun," requesting that the other photos be returned, asking when the first issue of the magazine is expected, expressing interest in an essay entitled "Constructive Point of View," and objecting that the author might too readily associate: "[...] Si vous m'avez pas besoin de mes autres photos, je vous prie bien de me les retourner - je vous serais très reconnaissant. On me demande assez souvent des photos et mon 'dépot' est as[s]ez modeste. Quand pensez vous de faire parraitre le premier numéro de votre revue? [...]". - Folds.
4to. 1 p. White House stationery. As President, to Harry I. Johnson of the Clearwater Sun, thanking him for his coverage of the Inaugural address, with a holograph postscript: "Many, many thanks": "I certainly appreciate the manner in which you covered the Inaugural address. It was very thoughtful of you to send me your Inaugural Day edition". - Stains at all edges from prior mounting, horizontal fold.
4to. 5¼ pp. on 3 ff. In German. Incisive words of wisdom and education to the artistically inclined graduate Ernst Buchholz (1905-67), later a liberal German chief prosecutor, who had previously sent Kirchner a print and had again requested a response: "I received your card, and I shall give you the answer that I did not give your first letter, because it is not pleasant. There is no greater injustice than not to let young people know the whole truth [...] Your print [...] was of no interest to me, for it did not yet contain anything personal, nothing of your own. A skilful hand translated impressions gained at the ethnographic museum into the Schmidt-Rottluffian style. It lacked that was is essential and valuable: personal imagination and a quest for modes of expression adequate to that imagination. And on top of all that, a spate of highly distasteful compliments drawn from conventional modern art-historical education. I saw that my works basically meant nothing to you. That is not encouraging to a man like myself, whose finest reward is when young people enjoy my works [...] All this association with older people is not good for you. You are on the best way to become one of these modern, complacent people whose inner emptiness, vanity and entirely wrongheaded ideas about life and art, wrongheaded for want of experience, makes them unhappy and dissatisfied. Do you have real friends your own age? [...] Do you engage in sports, not under compulsion, but with passion and love? [...] Have you got a girl that likes you, and whom you like? You will say, what business is that of his. But you see, my young friends have all of that [...] When they paint and draw, then earth and heaven are depopulated, and the characters dance on the paper and are awkward and badly drawn and without any style at all, and thank God, without any 'culture'. But they all are seen with the artist's very own inner eye and done with his innermost effort, done as well as he who experienced them could do them. They all have the imagination that you lack, my dear Buchholz [...] And I would risk all my reputation with you for liking all this. But that would be no pity, for the title 'Most venerated master' has for me the taste of rotten potatoes [...] We often discuss the young painters in Germany, for quite a few study over there. And one question recurs: Why all that dishonest, stilted, turgid affectation? Where does it come from? [...] One must be able to speak naturally, and the only way to learn that is to communicate with people of one's own age. Living in free and open intercourse without offence and without grovelling, without arrogance or dissimulation, this is what makes life plentiful and beautiful [...] Try this, and also try to draw, as best you can, from your own self. Your vanity may have to suffer for it somewhat, but you will gain much, much more: warmth and life [...]" (transl.).
3 SS. auf Doppelbll. 4to. Schöner Brief an die Schriftstellerin Fanny Tarnow, die von 1816 bis 1818 in St. Petersburg gelebt hatte und während ihres dortigen Aufenthaltes auch häufig mit Klinger zusammengetroffen war, mit dem sie lebenslang eng befreundet blieb. Klinger dankt für ihr Schreiben und zerstreut Fannys Bedenken wegen weiterer Briefe, die er ihr gesandt hatte: "Die Möglichkeit, daß durch Sie meine Briefe in andre Hände kommen könnten, ist mir nie denkbar gewesen - habe ich dieses nicht bewiesen, da ich sie geschrieben habe? Ich bin überzeugt, daß Sie darüber mit mir gleich denken u. an nichts zweifeln. Ihre Briefe über P. hat mir allerdings mein Freund Semler kommen lassen, u. ich bin ihm dankbar dafür. Sie haben das, was Sie von den Sitten, Gebräuchen der Nation gesehen haben, sehr gut gesehen, u. sehr richtig dargestellt, wahr u. klar. Ich bedaure, daß Sie an diesem wirklich sehr merkwürdigen Volke nicht mehr beobachten konnten, besonders, daß Sie es nicht etwas im Innern haben sehen können. Sie werden wohl einem glauben, der nun 40 Jahre in diesem Reiche lebt, u. das Volk auch im Innern gesehen hat [...]". - Der preußische Finanzrat Semler hatte ein Jahr lang wegen Verhandlungen über einen Handelsvertrag mit Russland in Petersburg gelebt; der am Ende des Briefes erwähnte "wahrhaft edle, treue Teutsche", General von Dörnberg - "den ich liebe u. hochachte, u. von dem ich, wie ich sagen kann, geliebt u. geachtet werde" - war Wilhelm Caspar Ferdinand Frh. v. Dörnberg, der sich seinerzeit als Kämpfer zur Befreiung Deutschlands von der napoleonischen Herrschaft hervorgetan und als schwer verwundeter Reiterführer die Schlacht bei Waterloo überstanden hatte und der seit 1825 als außerordentlicher Gesandter in Petersburg lebte.
8vo. 2 pages on bifolium. Letter to the delegates of the Austrian Workers' Party in which Lafargue praises the Austrian Socialist Movement: due to the workers' mentality, he writes, the movement managed to withstand the police actions against them that would otherwise have led to anarchy. Lafargue compares the Austrian situation to the German one. There, Bismarck's strategy of fighting the workers' movement through his Anti-Socialist Laws even advanced it and ultimately led to socialism being imported to the USA through his expulsions: "L'énergie, l'intelligence et l'esprit de discipline des ouvriers de votre pays vous ont permis de triompher des manoeuvres policières pour égarer le mouvement socialiste autrichien dans l'anarchie [...] il brûle d'imiter Bismarck, qui par ses lois d'exception, a contribué à constituer le plus puissant parti socialiste qui existe, et par ses expulsions a réussi à importer le socialisme aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique". Lafargue mentions the French situation and the measures taken by the government, namely imprisonment and gunfire. He especially notes, with a hint of irony, the First of May protests in Fourmies, where nine persons were killed and many more prosecuted: "Nous sommes aussi en France l'objet de la sollicitude du gouvernement; il essaie d'entraver notre mouvement par des manoeuvres policières, des emprisonnements et des fusillades. Le gouvernement après avoir massacré les socialistes à Fourmies, et les avoir chargé et sabré dans toutes les villes le 1er mai dernier, continue son oeuvre par des poursuites judiciaires [...]". - On squared, headed paper of the French Workers' Party. Some stains. Traces of old folds.
1p. 46.5:34cm (15 lignes). Exceptionelle rare lettre de Ninon de Lanclos, dont voici le texte: "Songes au capitaine que vous aves obligé tant de fois Monsieur je sais que pour faire du bien il ne faut point d'autre raison que celle de vos nobles inclination mais je ne pretans pas leur devoir tout quil y ait quelque chose pour lestime et lamitie que je conserve pour vous et pour celle que vous m'aves fait l'honneur de me prometre. Lanclos". - Cette lettre est à rapprocher de la lettre à Monsieur de Bonrepos dont le texte est quasiment identique (1p½ In-4, vendu aux enchères en 2002) mais présentée sur un papier de taille plus réduite et probablement aussi en caractères plus petits. Il est intéressant de noter que Monsieur de Bonrepos était un personnage assez important de la cour, qui fut même ambassadeur du Roi en Hollande. Notre lettre est forcément adressée à une personne plus importante encore, mais n'ayant aucune inscription de plus que le texte, il est impossible de savoir qui. Autographe de grande rareté.
1 S. Qu.-8vo. Dreiseitiger Goldschnitt. "Lieber! Behalten Sie in Ihrem Andenken Ihren Sie gewiß liebenden Freund". - Der vielseitige Lange, einer der bedeutendsten Schauspieler seiner Zeit, ist der Maler des wahrscheinlich populärsten Bildes seines Schwagers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, das vermutlich 1782/83 entstand und - wie der Musikwissenschaftler Michael Lorenz 2009 erkannte - ursprünglich auf einem Format von 19:15 cm nur Mozarts Kopf zeigte (wahrscheinlich 1789 wurde mit einer Vergrößerung des kleinen Portraits begonnen, die Mozarts Oberkörper und ein Klavier hinzufügen sollte, aber nie vollendet wurde). Mit seiner Frau, der Sängerin Maria Aloysia (geb. Weber), trat Lange 1789 in Hamburg und Berlin auf. - Einem Stammbuch entnommen, oben links numeriert "44". Auf der ansonsten leeren Verso- (eigentlich: Recto-)seite ("43") Bleistiftvermerk des 19. Jhs.: "Schauspieler in Wien".
4to. 2/3 pp. Bifolium with integral address panel and censor's comment. Written during the divorce proceedings of Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt (whose lawyer Lassalle was), during imprisonment, to judge "Oppenhoven" (i. e. Oppenhoof) at Cologne, asking for an arraignment and for the examination of several witnesses named Uderbach, Carl Gianella, and Gladbach regarding Arnold Goedecke and his concern with Mr. v. Stockum "in whose service he is". - During the trial, Lassalle had been arrested and was accused of having stolen a casket of important documents. - Traces of moisture on top of fol. 1 (opening lines faded) and some damage to edges.
4to 1 p. To Mr. Richard: "Your request rather worries me. My writing has no literary pretension, but has attracted notice since people have told stories about my oddness, making me out a romantic person - and it is considered curious that such a one should wish to write. Your paper is meant, you say, to be rather good. If so, why strain after a contribution from the merely notorious? I think I must wait till I have bought your first number + judged it for myself [...]".
Pergamentlibell. 15 SS. Folio. Roter Samteinband mit tw. erhaltenen Schließbändern anhängendes Siegel in Holzkapsel, ornamentierte Metallkassette mit Ausnehmung für das Siegel. Gegengezeichnet von Graf Julius Friedrich Bucellini.
8vo. 4 pp. Letter to an unnamed correspondent, in which Liszt expresses his ideas for a concert which will be held at the Salle Erard in Paris and which will comprise several of his compositions. The name of Madame Marchesi is mentioned twice, once for her "benevolence" that seems to make the concert possible, and a second time for the provision of a "brilliant" student to sing the part of "Joan of Arc at the Stake" which is included in the programme. The name of the pianist Madame Montigny is also mentioned twice, above all to take part in the programme and to carry out the "Hungarian Rhapsody" or a "Concerto". Liszt honours the literary personalities of his time by reminding that his "Preludes" are "after Lamartine", "Mazeppa after Victor Hugo" and "Joan of Arc at the Stake" after "Dumas". He also mentions the editors of the programmes of his compositions (Breitkopf, Schott, Taborsky). Liszt adds an NB: "I would not like to take the risk of a danse macabre because of the great orchestral noise that will do injustice to that of Mazeppa". - Provenance: Family Nikita Magaloff and Joseph Szigeti.
8vo. 3 pp. on on bifolium. With one addendum (s. b.). The letter is addressed to Peter Le Neve Foster, Secretary to the Society of Arts, with whom Livingstone corresponded a good deal during this period, asking him to supply samples which give an idea of the papers for the Indian civil service examinations: "[...] Neither of my boys are fit as yet for it but I would like to shew them what is expected one of them got prizes for Geography German French & Latin yesterday and seems likely to go on in these studies - Another got a prize for drawing - I wish to set them to aim high [...]". - Livingstone worries about the future of his surviving son, while preparing for his final departure for Africa that August. He had been invited to return to Africa by the Royal Geographic Society that January, in order finally to sort out the problem of the Nile. He wrote this letter when staying with his long ailing and bedridden mother. Soon afterwards, thinking that she was rallying, he dashed down to Oxford in order to deliver a lecture, where he received a telegram announcing her death on the eighteenth. He and his wife Mary, who had died in Africa in 1862, had three sons, Robert Moffat Livingstone (1846-64), Thomas Steele Livingstone (1849-76) and William Oswell Livingstone (1851-92). Robert, the eldest, had died of his wounds the previous December, while fighting on the Union side in the American Civil War under the name Rupert Vincent so as not to bring discredit to his father, who was wont to accuse him of trading off his name. In Tim Jeal's opinion, 'Robert's life is really the story of Livingstone's failure as a parent' (Livingstone, Pimlico edition, p. 281). Oswell, the youngest, fell out of favour when in 1872, as a member of the RGS relief expedition that had been upstaged by Stanley, he failed to join his father but instead recommended him to return home, causing his father to dub him 'as poor a specimen of a son as Africa ever produced'. Tom, the middle and eldest surviving son, stayed the course and was to act as his father's chief executor; although it was to be his sister Agnes, Livingstone's doted-upon daughter, who became chief guardian of his reputation. - An album with letters to Foster by Henry Cole and others is included in the lot.
6 Lederalben (qu.-folio) und lose Photographien (verschiedene Formate). Private Photosammlung des Schiffsstewards Hermann Muller, der zwischen den 1930er und 1960er Jahren - der Hochzeit der Luxusschiffahrt - auf den Passagierdampfern der Reederei United States Lines im Bordservice gearbeitet hatte und bis zum Chefsteward aufgestiegen war. - Die aus einer Postschiffahrtsgesellschaft hervorgegangene amerikanische Reederei United States Lines betrieb von 1929 bis 1969 eine Transatlantiklinie (New York-Bremerhaven und New York-London) für Luxus-Passagierdampfer, die tlw. mit ehemals deutschen, als Reparationszahlungen übernommenen Passagierschiffen (America, George Washington), später mit eigens für die Reederei gebauten Dampfern befahren wurde. Der berühmteste Dampfer des Unternehmens war die United States, das Flaggschiff der Reederei, die auf ihrer Jungfernfahrt 1952 (unter Kapitan H. Manning) das "Blaue Band" errungen hatte. Sie hält bis heute den Rekord für die schnellste Atlantikquerung eines Passagierschiffes in östlicher Richtung. - Hermann Muller fuhr unter anderem auf den Schiffen America, President Roosevelt, Leviathan, Manhattan, Washington und eben auch der United States. Als Chefsteward hatte er die Verantwortung für Küche, Vorratshaltung und Reinigung des Schiffs. Mullers große Umsicht und Einsatzbereitschaft für das persönliche Wohl der teils prominenten Passagiere sowie ein offensichtlich sympathisches Wesen machten ihn zum ersten Ansprechpartner und beliebten Mitglied der Bordcrew, wie zahlreiche herzliche und persönliche Widmungen auf den Photographien wie "Wishing you as always a Happy sailing thru life" bezeugen. Die Photographien (Formate zwischen 7 und 12 und 20 und 26 cm) stammen überwiegend von den Bordphotographen der Linie oder von privat und zeigen neben den Passagieren auch die Crew und das Küchenpersonal, Banketts, Silvester- und Geburtstagsfeiern, Bordhochzeiten, Seebestattung, seltene Details oder auch Gesamtaufnahmen der Passagierdampfer; daneben finden sich auch Familienphotos aus dem Privatleben von H. Muller. - Unter den Passagieren, die sich mit Photo und einigen Grußworten in der Sammlung verewigten, befinden sich viele berühmte Namen der funkelnden Welt des Films und des Jet Sets, des Sports und der Politik, darunter John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Horst Buchholz, Edward Duke of Windsor mit seiner Frau Wallis Simpson, Harold Lloyd, Walt Disney, Charles Boyer, Donald Campbell, die Boxer Walter Neusel, Bob Olin und Erich Seelig, Dean Jagger, Joan Crawford, Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, James Cagney, den Bürgermeister von London Cuthbert Ackroyd, Corinne Calvet, Herbert Marshall, Salvador Dali, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Haile Selassie, Ludwig Erhard, Felix Graf von Luckner, Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saud u. v. m. - Photographien teilweise gelöst, einzelne mit Randeinrissen, die Alben gering berieben. Insgesamt eine interessante und umfangreiche Sammlung von sehr guter Erhaltung.
8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium. Unpublished theoretical reflections "On Liberty", in which Léger ponders the role of liberty as a driving factor in the succession of artistic styles. Léger identifies "liberty" and "truth" as the main forces of change, drawing a continuous line from pictorial realism to then-contemporary abstraction via impressionism, cubism, and surrealism. In abstraction, the "abandonment of objects", Léger recognizes the danger of "anarchistic deviation" due to "oversimplicity". He therefore announces "the return of the sujet" as a "very serious" reaction to this tendency. For Léger this development is far from being reactionary, and he even points to religious "paintings of great quality" from "primitive epochs" (meaning European pre-Renaissance art) as positive examples. "Liberty can be at play within an accepted modern constraint", for the ultimate guarantor of its realization, according to Léger, is "creative genius". In proclaiming the return of figurative painting, Léger's schematic text is well situated within avant-garde discourses, while his categories of "liberty", "truth", and "creative genius" have since come under more critical scrutiny. - The text in full: "C'est un mot qui domine le monde, qui s'impose a toutes les générations successives. De tous temps on s'est fait tuer pour elle. Elle est le moteur des révolutions. En art c'est c'est moins grave - c'est moins dramatique. Mais cette liberté est elle aussi facteur constructif dans totes les différentes époque [!] pictural qui ont fleuri le monde. Elle marche de front avec la vérité. La bataille est la même. Etre libre d'être vrai, quelle quantité peut-on imposer? Il y a dans chaque époque creative une part de ces deux forces. L'epoque 1830 - L'epoque Impressioniste. L'epoque Cubiste. L'epoque Surrealiste. L'epoque Abstracte. comportent toutes un chiffre constructif, Liberté verité[.] a remarquer toutefois que ces differentes évolutions qui se succèdent comportent, plus on s’avance, à un besoin d’évasion de la pure realité - La fuite du realisme s’accentue en abandonnant les sujets (impressionnisme), en utilisant les objets (Cubisme), en abandonnant cet objet (art abstrait) - actuellement art abstrait 'art pour l'art' est étal - cet [!] tendance actuelle comporte en elle-même un danger, car elle est entierement imaginative sans aucune contrainte sujet ou objet. Par ce fait et par certaine deviation anarchique et trop facile, une réaction assez serieuse se fait jour, 'retour au sujet'. La liberté dont il est question est-elle en cause dans cette evolution que l'on pourrait croire réactonnaire? Pas du tout. Les grands époques primitives ont pu réaliser des tableaux de grande qualité en delineant un sujet aussi dramatique que la vie du christ - par exemple. La liberté peut jouer dans une contrainte moderne acceptee. Simplement avoir le genie creatif nécessaire pour realiser en qualité plastique le sujet choisi [...]". - Some browning. Well preserved.
8vo and 12mo. Altogether 9 pp. on 5 ff. The most important letter in this collection, to his close friend Armand Renaud, was written on 5 Dec. 1869 towards the end of a creative blockage that had begun earlier that same year. Suffering from an old illness and studying for a humanities degree, Mallarmé wished to take a year's leave from his post as a teacher in Avignon. He informs Renaud about his request to the Ministry of Education and his financial worries: "I find myself with hardly enough to get by". Therefore, he asks Armand to inform M. Lebourgeois of his request, who should in turn use his influence at the Ministry to obtain a higher allowance for Mallarmé. He also hints at the abandonment of his first literary project since 1866, the philosophical poem "Igitur", because of his studies: "I worked on what I told you but a serious occupation, which must be that of my forced leisure (the humanities degree in view of the doctorate), will give my thoughts a different direction. To tell the truth, a year of Latin and Greek suddenly appearing is a fortunate and interesting perspective". The Ministry granted Mallarmés leave, and during the year 1870 he worked on a linguistic thesis and a Latin thesis on divinity, neither of which he completed. - Mallarmé did not return to Avignon but stayed in Paris where he tried to launch the magazine "Art décoratif" in 1872. In the undated second letter, addressed to a M. Prunère, he announces that the painter Claudius Popelin (1825-92) would contribute a frontispiece to the project, admitting that he did not dare ask for other illustrations: "I saw M. Popelin who was charming and eager to do me the favour. I thus have the promise for a frontispiece [...] Very happy and very proud of my success, I did not dare mention the little ornament that I would like to see at the head of the first page, a kind of title serving as a transition for the reader who browses between the beautiful frontispiece of the cover and the text columns of the first page where it would be placed at the head [...] Do I dare ask you to procure that, just chatting?". The project ultimately fell through, and the recipient of the letter has not been identified. In 1874 Mallarmé launched the avant-garde fashion magazine "La Dernière Mode" and published a few issues as its sole editor. - The last letter in the collection is written to the sculptor and painter Albert Bartholomé (1848-1928) on behalf of the painter Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942), a former student of Mallarmé. Blanche was hoping that the École des Beaux-Arts would buy one of his paintings following the 1892 exhibition of the Société nationale des beaux-arts at the Palais du Champ de Mars. The painting can be identified with his famous portrait of Marcel Proust, today in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay: "I gathered some information and I communicate it to you so as not to exasperate the terrible man we love. It is necessary that M. Blanche immediately addresses the director of the Beaux-Arts with a request to 'include the no. of his painting in the acquisitions made at the Champ-de-Mars'. This formality is indispensable and it will be followed by a recommendation, which, I believe, will have its effect [...]" (10 May, postmarked 1892). - The letter to Armand Renaud on mourning stationery; the letter to Prunère with deep tears in the folds and some browning but no text loss.
4to. 2 pp. In German, to Mr. Motschan, on imprinted stationery of the Library of Congress, Consultant in Germanic Literature: "It has been a long time since I received your kind letter of June in which you remembered my birthday with so much affection. But I did receive it and cannot understand why the earlier letter got lost It cannot be the old address which caused it, for I receive many letters that get delivered to Princeton first... It has been a long time since we have lived in Princeton. Actually, my time as a visiting professor there had already run out after one year but was extended for another year as an exception. But every year we are here on the West Coast, and we like it so much that after renting for quite a while we built our own home here in the country, in a beautiful area near Westwood and Santa Monica, and not far from either Hollywood or Los Angeles. It is the fourth house in my life - and I think it will be my final residence. For what it will be like in Europe after this mess - if I live long enough to see it - God knows. Which does not mean that I say Hitler will be able to win this war. I was very happy to hear so much good news from you and I congratulate you on your studies. I can understand that St[efan] Zweig s death affected you so deeply. I cannot approve of his decision - hiding, by the way, an incurable illness of his wife is supposed to have contributed to it - because of the discouraging effect it may have on his companions in misfortune. And yet at the same time he was so much better off than most of them. He was much too soft a person, absolutely peace loving and his attitude was completely in favor of intellectual free trade and he is said to have made a gloomy impression since quite some time ago. R.I.P But he should not have permitted the Nazis this triumph. If he had hated and despised them more, he would not have done it Received my best wishes and let us hope that Switzerland will get through this turmoil safe and sound again!" - Thomas Mann had supported the first World War, which led to a break with his pacifist brother, novelist Heinrich Mann. Thomas had lived mostly in Munich until 1933, when he moved to neutral Switzerland. In 1936, he emphatically disassociated himself from Nazism with an open letter. Then in 1938, Mann came to Princeton as a visiting Professor, and settled in California in 1941. At the time of this letter, Mann was finishing his tetrology, Joseph and His Brothers, and began work on Doctor Faustus. Stefan Zweig, a man of Jewish descent, had developed pacifist views with the advent of World War I, when he moved to Switzerland from his native Vienna so that he could express those views. Between the wars he lived in Salzburg, then emigrated to Brazil in 1938. The horrors of World War II were too much for him to bear, causing him to commit suicide in 1942.
4to. 2 pages. To his friend, the French writer Henry de Montherlant. Matisse regrets not being able to receive him in the evening, as he has had a "spasm crisis which tired me much": "[...] mes journées sont souvent longues et le soir je dois renoncer à des visites qui prépareraient une nuit d'insomnie, d'autant plus certaine que visiteur serait plus intéressant. Aujourd'hui j'ai supporté un examen radiographique qui m'a brisé. En somme, je me trouve surtout en lutte avec les médecins [...] Ma fille que j'ai fait appeler m'aide heureusement dans cette lutte difficile et délicate. Au fond je me sens très bien, et aucune urgence ne me paraît indiquée. Comme je ne prends que des bouillies pour désenflammer l'intestin et des oranges (vitamines), j'ai forcé un peu trop sur les oranges, qui par leur aciditée m'ont dérangé l'intestin qui allait au mieux. Au lieu de reconnaître la cause vraie de ce petit accroc, les médecins y voient un motif de hâter l'intervention. Je ne les crois pas malhonnêtes mais simplement un peu trop excités à l'action. Le chirurgien est un père coupe toujours. Le médecin traitant est fils d'italiens et menacé par le nouveau régime a l'air de ne pas vouloir contrarier ce chirurgien établi solidement à Nice. Le 2e médecin est juif tremble dans ses culottes et se range de l'avis du plus fort. - Il a dit à ma fille, moi j'ouvrirais pour voir ce qu'il y a dedans. Au fond tout ça est rigolo. Il suffit de savoir se défendre - et pour ça je suis assez fort quand je ne fais pas de tableau - ce qui est le cas [...]".
Folio. 2 pp. on a bifolium. In German. A deeply affectionate letter to Mrs. Verkenius, the widow of the District Court Councillor Erich Verkenius (1776-1841), founder and patron of the Lower Rhenish Music Festival, and to their daughter Sibylla as well as to their son-in-law, the banker Ignatz Seydlitz (1803-70), at whose house Mendelssohn had spent the night during the first choral festival of the German-Flemish Sängerbund, which had taken place in Cologne on June 14th and 15th, directed by himself and Franz Weber: "Dear Mr. Seydlitz and dear Mrs. Verkenius - for in fact I would like to address this letter to all three of you - I am happily returned and have found all my family safe and sound, thank God. And now I feel as though I needed quickly to return to Malzbüchel no. 4 [the Seydlitzes' address] and say something about thanks and never forgetting - which would probably sound quite as ungraceful as these lines read, but would be meant no less earnestly and sincerely. Of course you are already aware of everything I am trying to say; you know that a reception such as the one I just enjoyed at your house, and everything that was mentioned again of the present and the past, and, in brief, that lasting, unchangeable friendship is and always will be the finest, dearest and best thing in the world, and that you thus have beatified for me these just-spent days into true feasts. This is what I wished to thank you for! There have been but few hours since I parted with you that I did not do so in spirit […] (transl.)". Published in: Reinhold Sietz (ed.), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Sein Leben in Briefen (Cologne & Krefeld, 1948), p. 237.
4to. 3 lines on vellum. Beautiful autograph on the last page of a copy of a contract with the tax stamp of the generality of Bordeaux (fol. 1r). Montesquieu probably annotated and signed this document, originally drawn up on 5 May 1712 in Castiers, in his role as président à mortier of Bordeaux, confirming that he had "received the sous and taxes of the present contract" and "canceled the third": "J'ai reçu les sols et rentes du present contrat et ai quitté le tiers". - Montesquieu had inherited his title, a large fortune and his office in Bordeaux from his uncle Jean-Baptiste de Secondat in 1716. He would remain président à mortier for 10 years until 1726, when he was forced to sell his venal office in order to settle debts. - Minimally smudged.
