Bidspirit auction | MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926)

MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) - MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) French Impressionist painter. A brief although highly emotive A.N., unsigned, one page, oblong 12mo, n.p., n.d. (early 1923?), in French. In bold black crayon Monet writes, in full, ´Bonjour Monsieur Coutela, ca va tres bien´ (Translation: ´Hello Mr. Coutela, things are going very well´ ). A rare note with an interesting association, and a testament to the importance of eyesight to painters, not least Claude Monet. Very slightly irregularly torn to the left and lower edges, VG Charles Coutela (1876-1969) French ophthalmologist whose most famous patient was Claude Monet. Claude Monet suffered his first visual setback in 1900 when, following an accident, he lost the sight in one eye for a month. From 1908 onwards, his vision deteriorated due to cataracts, however, dismayed with his work and worried, Monet, after consulting numerous specialists, did not want to be operated on, remembering the blindness of Mary Cassatt and that of Honoré Daumier which occurred after the same intervention. In 1922, as his eyesight became increasingly impaired, on Georges Clemenceau's advice he consulted the former French Prime Minister's friend, Dr Coutela. He was initially treated with drops, but the operation, which he delayed as long as possible, became inevitable. It took place in January 1923 at the clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and the ophthalmologist was satisfied: ‘I proceeded on the right to extract the cataract (extra-capsular) with aspiration of the masses as completely as possible. The same evening, the anterior chamber was reformed: this was a great relief to me’, he wrote. The present note was most likely to have been written shortly after Monet´s cataract operation, as a form of test of his eyesight. It´s large, slightly trembling handwriting suggests the state of Monet´s eyesight at the time. This moving note is all the more precious in that most of Monet's letters to Dr Coutela have been acquired by the Societe francaise d'ophtalmologie.