AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. "EMILE."
Émile Bernard. Autograph Letter Signed. "Emile." Two pages in French, 4" x 5.25", [n.p.; n.d.]
A letter from Bernard to the French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher, and art collector, Émile Schuffenecker (1851-1934). Bernard open his letter by asking Schuffenecker why they no longer write to each other. Thinking that he hurt Schuffenecker because of some slight, Bernard admits that he must have appeared harsh when it came to discussing "Jesus the savior," but it was said only because he wished to console him. He proceeds to claim that he shares Schuffenecker's pain and asks forgiveness if he has caused offense, writing, "may God judge this thing at his dazzling tribunal." Bernard closed the letter by claiming that his mother reminded him how kind Schuffenecker had been and how good a person he is, and signed off with "thank you and I am sorry."
The letter is accompanied by: 1) ALS. "H. Bernard." Two pages (of a bifolium) in French, with canceled postal cover, 4.5" x 6.75", Paris; February 14, 1895. Letter from Héloïse Henriette Bernard-Bodin (1838/39-1909), Émile Bernard's mother, to Émile Schuffenecker, in which she asks how he is doing and tells him that she is forwarding a letter for him from her son. She mentions the cold weather and hopes that March will bring more gentle days to Colombes [outside of Paris], where they would be very happy to see him. 2) A print of a photograph, 3.5" x 4.5", 1895, of a building in Cairo, Egypt, with writing by Bernard on the verso, noting that "a house on a Cairo street in 1895, indicating that architecture is not yet dead in the Orient." In 1893, Bernard traveled to Egypt and lived in the Middle East for the next ten years.
Condition: Good. The letter from Héloïse Henriette Bernard-Bodin has slight rust residue from a paperclip (since removed) at the right hand top of the last page, and what appears to be as light stain on the upper left corner of the last page.
1322198
Shelved Dupont Bookstore
Price: $1,000
NOTES
Émile Henri Bernard (1868-1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter, writer, and poet who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Eugène Boch (1855-1941) and, later, with Paul Cézanne (1839-1906).