DUFY RAOUL: (1877-1953) French Fauvist painter. A.L.S., Raoul Dufy, four pages, 8vo ...

DUFY RAOUL: (1877-1953) French Fauvist painter. A.L.S., Raoul Dufy, four pages, 8vo, Paris, n.d. ('Jeudi'; 5^th October 1917), to Jean Emile Laboureur, in French. Dufy states that his despatch must have surprised his correspondent and continues to explain a delay in the printing of an almanac, which is to be so late that Poiret wishes to abandon the idea for the present year, further writing of other work, 'Je viens de terminer les gravures des Elegies Martiales et nous vous enverrons un exemplaire aussitot paru. Je vois avec plaisir que vous avez beaucoup travaille et je suis sur que vous avez amasse de quoi travailler longtemps. Avez vous fait de la peinture? Je me seus une furieuse envie de m'y remettre….' (Translation: 'I have just finished the engravings of the Elegies Martiales and we will send you a copy as soon as it appears. I see with pleasure that you have worked a lot and I am sure that you have amassed enough to work for a long time. Did you paint? I feel a furious desire to get back to it…..') and also making reference to Roger Allard, 'Vous apprendrez que notre ami Allard vient de se blesser assez grievement. Je viens de recevoir une lettre de lui est raide et immobile sur un lit d'hopital, il souffre blessures a la jambe gauche a la main droite, a la levre et brulures sur le corps. Il faut attendre des precisions et esperer que ces blessures ne seront que legeres' (Translation: 'You will learn that our friend Allard has just been seriously injured. I have just received a letter from him, he is stiff and motionless on a hospital bed, he suffered injuries to his left leg, right hand, lip and burns on his body. We have to wait for details and hope that these injuries will only be slight'). Accompanied by the original envelope hand addressed by Dufy. A couple of very light, extremely minor stains to the upper right edge of the first page, not affecting the text. VG

Jean Emile Laboureur (1877-1943) French painter, designer, engraver, watercolourist, lithographer and illustrator.

Roger Allard (1885-1961) French writer, art critic and translator whose book of poetry, Les Elegies Martiales (1917), was illustrated with woodblock prints by Dufy, and whose work L'Appartement des jeunes filles (1919) was the first book which Laboureur provided illustrations for.