Bidspirit auction | MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) ´ I’m

MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) ´ I’m off for a stroll towards the hospital to watch the sunset´ - MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) French Impressionist painter. A good A.L.S., Claude , four pages, 8vo, Embankment Gardens, London, n.d. ( ´Dimanche 5hres´ ; 11th February 1900), to his second wife, Alice Hoschedé, on the printed stationery of the Savoy Hotel, in French. Monet states that, on his return last night from a dinner with [the artist, John Singer] Sargent and [Monet´s youngest son] Michel at a grand club on Pall Mall, he had found Alice´s lovely letter, which had given him great pleasure, remarking ´ Je suis content de te savoir courageuse et bien heureux que tu aies reçu de bonnes nouvelles d´Amerique, et qu´enfin ils reparlent du retour, ce qui doit te rassurer´ (Translation: ´I ’ m glad to hear you’re keeping your spirits up and very happy that you’ve received good news from America, and that they’re finally talking about coming home again, which must be a relief to you´ ). The painter further sends his own news, ´ J e suis bien installé au 5e et j´ai les deux chambres que nous avions au 6e; on a démeublé le 541 et je couche au 542, car, avec tout mon matériel, je n´aurais jamais pu me retourner, mais j´ai bien cru un moment que j´allais être mis à la porte de l´hôtel, on me faisait très bien sentir que, malgré mon droit d´exiger mon appartement, il m´était difficile en qualité d´étranger de me mettre en opposition au désir de la princesse Louise. Enfin, tout est pour le mieux maintenant: ce matin, j´ai organisé et fait tous mes rangements et, après avoir très bien déjeuné au restaurant Savoy avec Michel, je suis remonté me mettre au travail. Il fait très beau aujourd´hui, mais un froid terrible; aussi ai-je du feu. Michel m´a quitté pour aller patiner; hier, il a patiné toute la journée´ (Translation: ´ I’m all settled in on the 5th floor and have the two rooms we used to have on the 6th; we’ve cleared out 541 and I’m sleeping in 542, because, with all my equipment, I’d never have been able to turn round, but for a moment I really thought I was going to be thrown out of the hotel; they made it very clear to me that, despite my right to demand my suite, it was difficult for me, as a foreigner , to go against Princess Louise’s wishes. Anyway, everything is fine now: this morning I sorted everything out and tidied up, and after a lovely lunch at the Savoy restaurant with Michel, I went back up to get to work. It’s lovely weather today, but terribly cold; so I’ve lit a fire. Michel has gone off skating; yesterday he skated all day´ ), reports of a heavy snowstorm the night before, and imagines that Giverny will be cold too, where Jean-Pierre ( ´J.P.´ ) may also have been ice skating, before also making a reference to the Boer War, ´Les Anglais paraissent consternés et surtout humiliés de leur déconfiture, et, paraît-il, les étrangers sont fort mal vus, surtout les Français, que l´on renvoie de beaucoup de maisons; au Savoy, il n´y a presque personne, et tout Londres a un air lamentable; il y a de quoi, du reste. Nous avons beaucoup parlé de la guerre avec Sargent, qui a l´air étonné de la joie des Français. C´est égal, c´est très gênant de se trouver ici en ce moment. Heureusement pour moi que je n´ai pas à voir beaucoup de monde´ (Translation: ´The English seem dismayed and, above all, humiliated by their defeat, and, it seems, foreigners are viewed very badly, especially the French, who are being turned away from many places; at the Savoy, there is hardly anyone, and the whole of London looks wretched; and with good reason, for that matter. We talked a great deal about the war with Sargent, who seems surprised by the French people’s joy. Never mind, it is very awkward to be here at the moment. Fortunately for me, I don’t have to see many people´ ). Monet concludes in affectionate terms, also explaining ´Je vais faire un tour vers l´hôpital pour voir le coucher de soleil et dîner solitairement au Café Royal´ (Translation: ´I’m off for a stroll towards the hospital to watch the sunset and have dinner on my own at the Café Royal´ ) and in a postscript writes ´Reçu hier soir ce télégramme de Mme. Hunter qui avait sans doute eu la neige avant nous´ (Translation: ´Received this telegram last night from Mrs Hunter, who had no doubt seen the snow before us´ ). A letter of interesting content composed at the beginning of Monet´s third visit to England´s capital, a trip which would result in some of the artist´s most famous masterpieces . Some light creasing and with a couple of neat splits at the head and foot of the central vertical fold in the bifolium, otherwise about VG Alice Hoschedé Monet (1844-1911) French artists' model, wife of the art collector Ernest Hoschede and later of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet (from 1892). Michel Monet (1878-1966) was the second son of Claude Monet and his first wife, Camille Doncieux.