Antoine Bourdelle fought death through relentless creation. 1927.

Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)

Autographed letter signed to the architect Alfred Rome.

Two quarto pages. Envelope.

[Paris]. May 8, 1927.

"I was sick three years ago ! But since then I've carried out..."

Having been struck by severe rheumatism in 1924, which had hampered his projects, Bourdelle was, in the spring of 1927, exhilarated by his creations and by the countless projects he had to undertake around the world. To create in order to defy death.

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“… I was ill 3 years ago ! But since then I have executed the bas-relief for the Marseille opera house. 12 meters . Since then, I have completed the great dying centaur and exhibited it in bronze.”

I created and executed in three dimensions "France Keeps the Memory of the Free Army of the United States of America ." 1) A small model, 1 meter high. 2) A medium model, 4 meters high. Bronze, in the Brooklyn Museum, United States. 3) A 9-meter-high model (bronze) with a variation. One for Paris, the other for Montauban.

This winter, I completed two-thirds of the monument to the rebirth of Poland and its great poet Mickiewicz. I am finishing the seated statue of the Marquis de Solages.

I am creating – a 3-meter-tall bronze – bronze statue of the great Honoré Daumier for Marseille, in front of the old port.

I started for the French government and to have the active statue of Viviani placed in Paris. One for Paris, in bronze, the other for Algiers, in marble.

I executed the commemorative medal for the General Alvear monument. I executed the medal for the Hartmannswillerkopf monument – ​​and 2 victories to guard the entrance to the crypt.

I am executing busts of Vincent d'Indy. One of a young girl, one of a young child, one of a young woman. And one of Anatole France in marble.

I am making 15 bas-reliefs to illustrate the Demosthenes of President Clemenceau.

I am working on the 6 bas-reliefs at the base of the monument to Polish freedom.

I take the photos and write the text for the publication of my work by Librairie de France.

Add the students to see twice a month. The drawings. The correspondence. The painting, and let's consider this activity.

I have a monument for Bolivia. One for Uruguay. I am in talks with Chile. Is that enough? And with Nicaragua.

And the miners' monument, in stone, to be finished and which I must carve myself. My illness, as you can see, is a distant memory.

So I have too much work.

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The sculptor passed away on October 1, 1929, in Le Vésinet, in the house made available to him by his friend Eugène Rudier.