Claude MONET
Autograph letter signed to his wife
Letter concerning his work on the paintings of the Rouen cathedrals
Autograph letter signed to his wife, Alice Monet (Hoschedé). (Rouen February 20, 1893), Monday evening 9am; 4 pages in-8th.
While Monet returned to Rouen to complete his paintings of the cathedral begun the previous year, he worried about the calm necessary to his work: "My darling, I'm returning to sleep and find your
letter. Certainly, I would be delighted to see you and to make my brother (Leon Monet) happy but frankly I'm only just starting to organize myself and improve my work and my faith, I think the
priority is to think about work, I had too many disappointments last year. I do count upon, as I said, you coming once to Rouen with the little one, and Blanche (the daughter of Alice) this will also
be when I will be a little bit advanced in my work and also when there will be a little more foilage to see the Jardin des Plantes. I will write immediately to my brother. He is very nice, there is
less embarassment with his own than with strangers. He should nevertheless understand that I need peace and quiet. I kiss you and I love you, Claude Monet. Your arrival would in any case throw me off
at this moment, for I absolutely need all my willpower and all my strength to get out of this difficulty. Or else I have to be here on a walk and come back in 8 days. These tugging already exasperate
me. P.S. I do not understand the silence of Jean (the son of Claude Monet), except that he thought he would avoid disturbing me, which must excuse him, besides I feel that if this is to happen again,
I will give up all work here. I am sure that I will not go to sleep (...) ".
From mid-February 1893, Monet stayed at the Hotel d'Angleterre to complete his series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral, begun a year earlier, and to work on new ones. A perfectionist, he is
eternally dissatisfied. During his two-month stay from February 16th to April 11th, he often shared the table of his brother Léon, who runs a small chemical business in which Jean, Claude Monet's
son, was hired.