Letter from Marie Laurencin, Paris, to Marguerite Rosenberg, 1946 March 21 : autograph manuscript signed.

She had been waiting to hear from Marguerite (Margot) and was happy to receive the most useful, practical gift from her, which she really needed--and with chocolate in the center. She asks what use books and paintings are when one lives in the dust. Spring is arriving, and the apartment isn't cold anymore. She hopes to have gas heat next winter. She's tired of coal heat, since it has been so difficult to get coal. She's been taken under the wing of the C.P.D.E. [Compagnie parisienne de distribution d'electricité] and is able to heat one room and her studio by electricity. Buses are running better now, and there are more cars. There is wool available, and there are woolen clothes available in the stores. There are stockings now, too. Food is more and more disappointing--she doesn't understand why--no more vegetables. She tells Marguerite to tell Paul that there are lots of exhibitions--new painters, it seems to her, but she doesn't go to them; she prefers to be out in the street in Paris.