Library and Archive Reading Rooms
View by appointment- Created by
- Pierre-Olivier Dubaut 1886 – 1968
- Recipient
- Jacques Lipchitz 1891–1973
- Title
- Letter from Pierre Dubaut to Jacques Lipchitz
- Date
- 6 April 1934
- Format
- Document - correspondence
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Presented to Tate Archive by Rubin Lipchitz, March 1989; the cataloguing and selective digitisation of this archive collection was supported by Mr Timm Bergold, 2023
- Reference
- TGA 897/1/1/142/9
Description
Full text (in translation):
'Dear Friend,
It's already been two weeks since I left Paris, I haven't done any work, I spent entire days resting and I can finally see the results. I'm still not in good shape and I can see time passing while I think of a lot of things without being able to appreciate what's good here!
The tranquility, the wilderness and all the steps in between, the absence of noises and the Metro etc.
We are going to bed at 10 pm, it is marvelous!
But the sea and nature don?t work with me, I could feel it as soon as I arrived, and more than once, my lungs are not cured, I think it is this artery that I have as I can [illegible word] that comes on my nose and because I probably have some [illegible word] I will be coming back to Paris to remove them so that I can finally enjoy my holidays.
So, it's very possible that you will be seeing me soon although I am living here. But it will not be for a long time and I don't know if we will be able to do anything productive together.
[sentence written in the margin of the paper] I have received your letter a while ago, thank you.
I would have liked to go to Versailles, a very useful visit for us especially for [illegible artist name] and Horace Vernet. It is necessary to know if Horace Vernet has made a large painting! [illegible sentence] with information on where it is and the date. I'm sure the information must be in libraries ('Doucet' is closed I think) or I'll ask the conservator of Versailles, Gaston Driere, or his wife that I know as well.
I don't know if I will be able to go the religious art exhibition, so don't wait for me.
I'm waiting on some information on Laras and [illegible word], it is my refrain, so that I can seriously work on my animals from nature and make some progress. I'm not proud of my latest work.
Of course, I'm thinking a lot about Gericault. It's in the tranquility here that we should finalize our documents. Candide will bring a fraud. An exhibition by Degas at the Museum of the l'Orangerie, but nothing else. The books are always interesting, write them down to me.
I also hope that you are calm and working. In a box I have a drawing from Geric [probably means Theodore Gericault] depicting Saint Sebastian on dark oil paper. Unfortunately, I left it in the sun one day and it has faded so much that we can barely see it, it only looks brown. At the Fecamp museum [musee des Pecheries in Fecamp, France] there is a bust in plaster of Gericault by a renowned sculptor named Delvaux [Alexandre Delvaux] dated from 1897, so without any much interest.
[sentence written in the margin of the paper] It's raining today, I'm happy to have chatted with you. Have you seen the Casino of Paris the 18 [illegible title of a show] apparently, it's amazing, I would love to go.
Sending you and Mrs. Lipchitz my best wishes'.
Archive context
- Personal and professional papers of Jacques Lipchitz TGA 897 (451)
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- Correspondence TGA 897/1 (212)
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- Correspondence to and from Jacques Lipchitz TGA 897/1/1 (183)
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- Correspondence between Pierre Dubaut and Jacques Lipchitz TGA 897/1/1/142 (40)
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- Letter from Pierre Dubaut to Jacques Lipchitz TGA 897/1/1/142/9