Letter from Erich Kahn to J.P. Hodin

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[Translation/transcription]

1 Albert Studios
4 Albert Street
NW1

22 August 1958

Dear Hodin,

Many thanks for your kind card. The exhibition is going so so – not many reviews so far. Pierre Rouve was here for the private view, and Laurence Alloway. Eric Newton also put his name in the guest book. A well-meaning collective critique in The Times is the only thing that has been published so far (anonymously). There are no art reviews at all in the Statesman or the Spectator. I suppose none of them live in London – perhaps next week.

The little self-portrait

Room II

One lady fell from this platform even before the opening. She wanted to see my picture from a distance. I was not present for this exciting incident.

So far the exhibition has been what you might call a critical success. It is nicely hung; people come and say more or less flattering things about what they see – some even ask about prices. Nothing has sold so far.

In the meantime I am starting new pictures, planning bigger ones and hoping to get a few things finished before the autumn doldrums set in – by which point I also hope to be able to start your portrait.

[Halima] Nahez is in Venice and will be back before the exhibition closes.

I take great pleasure in reading the catalogue and the Portrait of the Artist over and over, and I believe it makes me go red every time.

I hope the whole family is well and the weather not too bad (as it is here, for example).

Sincerely yours,

EK

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