Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903). - Lot 38

Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903). L.A.S., [early May 1883], to Camille Pissarro; 2 1/2 pages small in-8° filled with small handwriting (slight tear) A few days after Manet's funeral. He has learned that there has been a subscription to which everyone has contributed, "to send a wreath to Manet's funeral, you will tell me what I owe you. I have so little time to myself to work that I didn't want to sacrifice Thursday [May 3, the date of the funeral], and I went to work in Chaville". What's more, he didn't want to face the crowds of curious onlookers: "many of his detractors during his lifetime were there to be seen, believing they were increasing their celebrity and wanting to be quoted in the newspapers. [...] Manet had donned the uniform of leader, now that he's dead Degas is going to succeed him, and it's an Impressionist who's drawing! Boudin, from this same point of view, must be considered one of the first, as his drawing was more written and free of mystery"... As for the London exhibition [the 1st London Impressionist Exhibition, Dowdeswell Galery, 1883, Drawings, paintings, and pastels by members of La Société des Impressionistes, organized by Durand-Ruel], he thinks Durand-Ruel is mistaken: "The same mistake was made, when they wanted to make exhibitions where half were not Impressionist. If you put Cézanne next to a quiet painter doing what is known, Cézanne will be funny. If, on the other hand, you are grouped together, of the same nature, the whole forms a principle that imposes itself. When my wife saw Bastien-Lepage's painting, she called it a détournement de mineure. What an idyll"... Gauguin tried to help Pissarro, who had insured his paintings, to get the underwriting cancelled: "You must reply energetically that you don't want to be insured for your paintings and that if you had done so, it was under pressure from an agent and that, hearing nothing of this kind of affair, you were convinced that you could undo it the following year, once the broker had promised. Above all, don't give in to weakness"... Provenance: Archives of Camille Pissarro (sale November 21, 1975, no. 51).