J. COCTEAU, 9 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED TO LADY MICHELHAM, 1956-1959

in French, apologising repeatedly for not being able to meet "owing to [his] work on the chapel" in Villefranche, which causes him to live "on ladders and scaffolding while painting walls" and makes him "so dirty that I dare not descend"; writing on another occasion that he is "undergoing dental procedures and is made to rest, and therefore has no time to do his work as a lithographer" 9 pages in all, various sizes, eight autograph envelopes addressed to Lady Michelham at the "Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo", five letters on letterheaded paper ("Santo-Sospir St. Jean Cap-Ferrat), three letters with drawings (including two large profile portraits in crayon and one drawing of a snail in ink), Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 11 September 1956 to 12 January 1959. Included in this lot are four additional ink drawings of women, two signed by Cocteau ("Jean").

Lady Berthe Michelham, thence by family descent

In 1957 Jean Cocteau conceived and realised a painted decoration for the internal walls and the fassade of the chapel of St.-Pierre in Villefranche. It contains five main scenes, two evoke Mediterranean life and the three others relate to episodes of the life of St Peter. Cocteau had moved to Villefranche in 1924 after the death of his companion Raymond Radiguet. Many years later, he persuaded locals to let him paint the neglected, 14th-century chapel, which he subsequently transformed with his frescoes. Lady Berthe Michelham (née Capel), the daughter of Arthur Joseph Capel, a British shipping merchant, was the sister of "Boy" Capel, famous for being a long-time lover and muse of fashion designer Coco Chanel. Berthe married Herman Alfred Stern, 2nd Baron Michelham.