Édouard Manet

Acquired from Pierre Berès

Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Manet by Himself, 1991, p. 256 (citing a postmarked envelope not in the present lot)

A very fine illustrated letter from Manet to his pupil and muse Eva Gonzalès.  In the summer of 1880, Manet whose health was deteriorating due to advanced syphilis, moved his household to a rented villa at 41, route des Gardes in Bellevue, a village just west of Paris.  To ease the boredom of exile from his beloved Paris, the artist composed illustrated letters to his closest friends.  Eva Gonzalès was the only artist Manet ever took on as a pupil on a formal basis (a source of consternation to Berthe Morisot) and was the subject of several superb portraits by him.  The present letter includes witty portraits of Gonzalès and her husband, graphic artist Henri Guérard, who were summering at Honfleur.  The second page of the letter is written across an ethereal study of a spray of lillies.

The letter reads: "I was hoping for a sketch both of you and by you, dear Madame Eva [sketch], and won't let you forget it.  I've made rather a mess of your Henry [sketch] but neither of you will hold it against me.  I could easily improve it by making it a better likeness.  I see you're spending your time agreeably.  As for me, I'm working again.  At the moment I'm doing a portrait of Mlle Emilie Ambre, a landowning prima donna neighbor.  I go and work on it every day because she's leaving for America on 8 October.  We intend to stay on at Bellevue until the end of the month.  I'm much better and am beginning to feel really hopeful.  With regards from all of us to all of you …, Ed. Manet."

Emilie Ambre, the "prima donna" mentioned by Manet, had taken his celebrated painting The Execution of Maximilian on a tour of America the previous year.