Picasso

Douglas Cooper English art critic friend of Picasso and champion of cubism. Typed Letter Signed to Philip Dosse publisher of ‘Art and Artists’ covering a number of subjects personal and political.

25111 — 12 June 1979. On letterhead of the Chateau de Castille 30 Argilliers T 10 Vers par Nimes. See the entries for Cooper born Arthur William Douglas Cooper and Richardson in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of the recipient Philip Dosse who was proprietor of Hansom Books publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Art and Artists and Books and Bookmen. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide in Standpoint magazine October 2018. 2pp 8vo on a single leaf of air mail paper. Forty-six lines of text. Somewhat worn and creased but in fair condition overall. Signed ‘D C’ and addressed to ‘DEAR PHILIP’. After discussing a publicity photograph he writes: ‘You sound depressed. I dare not let my feelings go so far because I might never bounce back. I’m depressed because it is wet and cold whereas it should be hot hot and hotter. Am just back from a 4 day run around in Burgundy with two American friends. We saw chateaux ate excellently and drank our fill. It was full of laughter and bonhomie. That was a change.’ He reports that he will be spending two days in Venice ‘where I have to look at the Binnale and record a critical piece for the Italian TV. They pay me for the honor of giving me a 5 day holiday so why should I argue.’ He will then travel to Menton for a week as a juror at their biennale. He longs for hot weather so he can bathe: ‘It is difficult and dangerous to be southern.’ He discusses reviews he has written for ‘Art and Artists’. He has been in touch with the theatre historian Richard Buckle ‘about the Theatre Museum’: ‘But why oh why oh why MUST it take 79 years in England to get started something that in any other country would take 79 days That’s the inertia that I have deliberately left behind.’ Dosse’s ‘political forecasts are of the utmost pessimism. . The trouble in Ulster is much more bound up with the parrot-cry of King and Country than with religious differences. Which is why Mr William Hamilton is my hero and which is why I have no hesitation in saying that the monarchy must be dethroned.’ He feels that William Whitelaw just appointed Home Secretary in Thatcher’s first government ‘can only fail’ and that ‘Ulster is the Rhodesia of the north. They should give Ulster one week’s notice that the British are going to take ship and disappear for ever cutting off all finance soldiers etc. And they should go leaving a vacuum to be filled by Dublin. If only the IRA would put bombs in Buckingham and Windsor we would all be better off for there would be immediately a republican rising. And I might play J of Arc.’ In the final paragraph he describes Lord Goodman as ‘VERY ugly. He may change his ill-fitting clothes and appear under different names but the play’s always a bad one and his acting as ham as can be. His only truth is as a canny jewish family solicitor. I find it fascinating that the man who prevented the Prime Minister’s divorce on the day he took office should be rewarded with the kingdom of culture and the secret diplomacy. What world are we in’ 12 June [1979]. On letterhead of the Chateau de Castille, 30 Argilliers, T 10 Vers (par Nimes). hardcover