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an old book with writing on it sitting on top of a tablean old drawing of a man with glasses and a tiean open notebook with a handwritten poem on it sitting on top of a tableseveral pieces of old letters are stacked on top of each otherseveral old letters are stacked on top of each other on a white surface
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130 - Emmanuel Fougerat (1869–1958), Breton painter and museum cur…
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Estimate €300 - €600
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Emmanuel Fougerat (1869–1958), Breton painter and museum curator A collection of correspondence, an original drawing and handwritten notes 19 letters, 1915–1948, addressed to René Benjamin, including: P.A.S., Ker Guen, La Baule-sur-Mer, 2 February 1940 Ah! I really cannot hide from you my admiration for your vitality of spirit and your talent. Your article on rays and shadows, the one on the Word, are marvellous, and today’s piece on the views of those called up is side-splitting. And how true! But why on earth did they cut 130 lines from it? Because your portrayal of democracy and its understanding of the masses was no doubt too accurate. I am so taken with your own intelligence that you won’t escape it; I am bound to produce, one day or another, a heartfelt sketch of your ‘refined’ features in a few eloquent strokes… L.A.S., Paris, 18 December 1940 My dear friend and adviser, I must tell you what a treat you gave me with your closing remarks at last night’s little dinner. As we were leaving Versailles, with a single remark (which sprang spontaneously from your ever-vibrant mind), you perfectly summed up one of my joys in life through its constant appeal, but you said: ‘You think you’re in the Jardin d’Acclimatation!’ You’ve hit the nail on the head! Indeed, I always look upon my fellow men with admiring wonder, and I try to define their species; I would leave them something of myself if I could manage (at last) to express the most thorough classification possible, based on their outward appearance. Absorbing the lives of others strengthens one. You are a prime example of this. That is why you are such a great guide to me; that is why I have come here to thank you for listening so patiently to one of my passions… Handwritten notes by René Benjamin on loose sheets, 6 pp. in-8, including: Sun 8 Feb 42 I watch him work for an hour. He has the face of a young southern type, a little sensual, handsome, but ‘a pig’s face’. As he tells him with that abrupt familiarity that doesn’t seem affected. He is preparing his half-tone. ‘That,’ he says, ‘is all there is to it!’ He has done a first sketch, then a ‘rough draft’, and now: This is the most important part: finding the half-tone upon which the modelling will be based. Look here, my dear, at this splendid Velázquez (a portrait of a man in the Prado)—he found the half-tone divinely, upon which he then applied his bold strokes of brilliant daring—but that’s the end of it! And this Goya! Now there you have the masters! And he smokes, stubs out his cigarette butts, steps back, steps forward, and even turns his model round so that the light, clear as day (it’s 12° below zero!), illuminates him from a better angle. He holds his palette, trying to mix shades of blonde and gold. He shows me what he did eight days earlier on a bad day: “It was a mess!” The stove isn’t heating up. The room can’t cope with it. His hands are very dirty, but… it can’t be helped! Under a table lies a sort of tattered suitcase from which soiled manuscripts and yellowed photographs spill out: ‘That’s my book, mind you! The reflection of my whole life!’ Grasset is waiting for it. I work until 11.00 pm. His wife—slender, gaunt, a little bird, devoted—finds him food, without keeping much for herself. He, he has to write! She, she forgets her misery with her piano, from time to time. He often dines at a restaurant. That’s not good at his age. She knows it. He always eats too much straight away and drinks just as much. But that’s the dilemma: either nothing, or too much. And he doesn’t understand a thing about the receipts, Mr [Monsieur]! He says to me: ‘Well, what’s the problem? Since I’ve eaten at a restaurant, you’ve got the receipts from home!’ I’m familiar with this inability of the artist, so passionate about his art, to understand anything at all. He can’t give it a moment’s thought. So, he never understands. He’s pinned this or that quote from a great artist (Delacroix, for example) that he likes here and there on the walls. He’s a man of great passion. He produces exquisite little nudes, voluptuous in their own right, like fragments of paintings. He sells them well. But Mrs Fougerat says: That is not his true work. It is his large portraits. That is where he excels. Portrait of René Benjamin Black chalk and oil pastels Signed and dated Paris 1943 bottom left Artist’s dedication: ‘To René Benjamin, his admirer and friend’ 33 x 28 cm Etc... FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE
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About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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