Letter from Henri Matisse, Nice, to Paul Rosenberg, 1940 February 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying that he hasn't written to Rosenberg for a while because he was in bed with the flu for a week and is staying in his bedroom this week. He's also been tormented by business--a misunderstanding. It's about the inventory and appraisal by Bellier that he (Matisse) had hindered. It had to do with the notaire of Nice and Madame Matisse--it had nothing to do with him. It was necessary to write to Madame Duthuit through his lawyer to hers[?]. It's a terrible business that is making him suffer. He is being judged cruelly, with no consideration for a situation that was imposed upon him--and upon what he has spent his whole life working on. He's being reproached for selfishness. It doesn't take into account that he's spent his whole life like a baker who watches over an oven in which bread is baking, uncertain that it's going to turn out. G.B.[Gaston Bernheim?] is in the region and came to see him with evening with his friend "S.G." He's coming back on Monday. He has felt this uncertainty for all his works. He feels he's been treated with great injustice, and he can't accept it or even believe it. He can't wait for this division [of his works between him and Mme Matisse] to be over and done with, no matter how it turns out. He says that the division of his paintings in the most advantageous way is not what is frightening him but rather the way he is being treated, which can only be fueled by a jealous wife who wants to avenge herself by every possible means and who is not going to give up--and by the lack of understanding of his children. He says he'll eventually get over it, not caring about public opinion, which he views as a scarecrow agitated by the wind. He says he knows all about public opinion and the stories people tell. People [or his wife and others] want him to think that he is poisoning the future of his grandchildren. He knows that this news will probably circulate as soon as possible. He hopes that Rosenberg is not encountering obstacles to his plans and will be able to execute them. All in all, he says, things are good for him, and he has to admit that everyone has troubles of different kinds. But he says he didn't deserve what has happened to him. He adds that, as Rosenberg said, he should console himself with what he has, but he shouldn't get worked up enough about his importance. Every day, working modestly, he sees that he's only a man who does the best with his time as sincerely as possible--the fate of many--and doesn't see why he has to be deprived of the joys of his family, which he created as best he could. He thanks Rosenberg for his letters, which support him and bring him pleasure.