BIB_ID
116911
Accession number
MA 951
Creator
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.
Display Date
[1883 Oct.].
Credit line
Purchased by J.P. Morgan Jr., 1918.
Description
1 item (16 p.), bound ; 15.8 cm
Notes
Written on stationery embossed "La Solitude / Hyères-Les-Palmiers / Var."
Provenance
Purchased from the London dealer Bain by J.P. Morgan Jr., 1918.
Summary
Discussing leotard's and art, his own work and health, etc., etc.
Mentioning recent maladies, noting "the health is a putrid thing, to be sure." Inviting him and his family to visit and describing their living arrangements and the accommodations they can offer. Remarking on his financial situation, noting that their household expenses have averaged about £5.50 a day and that "I have lots of money owing, lots of stuff out, but it won't come in, and I am dunned for my rent and have £5 in my pocket to start to Nice with." Discussing his work, literature and art at length. Discussing French realism and noting that he has written a related short piece for Henley; remarking on Balzac's tediousness and noting that "he would leave nothing undeveloped, and thus drowned out of sight of land amid the multitude of crying and incongruous details. Jesus, there is but one art: to omit! O if I knew how to omit, I would ask no other knowledge." Remarking in this vein on visual art as well, noting that "artistic sight is judicious blindness," and concluding that "the painter must study more from nature than the man of words ... because literature deals with mens business and passions ... but painting with relations of light and colour and significances and form which, from the immemorial habit of the race, we pass over with an unregardful eye." With a postscript in the hand of his wife Fanny, primarily on the emotional impact of Ferrier's death on Stevenson, and on poor health of Stevenson and her son Sam.
Mentioning recent maladies, noting "the health is a putrid thing, to be sure." Inviting him and his family to visit and describing their living arrangements and the accommodations they can offer. Remarking on his financial situation, noting that their household expenses have averaged about £5.50 a day and that "I have lots of money owing, lots of stuff out, but it won't come in, and I am dunned for my rent and have £5 in my pocket to start to Nice with." Discussing his work, literature and art at length. Discussing French realism and noting that he has written a related short piece for Henley; remarking on Balzac's tediousness and noting that "he would leave nothing undeveloped, and thus drowned out of sight of land amid the multitude of crying and incongruous details. Jesus, there is but one art: to omit! O if I knew how to omit, I would ask no other knowledge." Remarking in this vein on visual art as well, noting that "artistic sight is judicious blindness," and concluding that "the painter must study more from nature than the man of words ... because literature deals with mens business and passions ... but painting with relations of light and colour and significances and form which, from the immemorial habit of the race, we pass over with an unregardful eye." With a postscript in the hand of his wife Fanny, primarily on the emotional impact of Ferrier's death on Stevenson, and on poor health of Stevenson and her son Sam.
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