Edgar DEGAS and the exile of his sister Marguerite in Argentina.

Edgar Degas (1834.1917)

Autograph letter signed to Sophie Niaudet-Berthelot.  

Four pages in-8°. Slnd. [Paris] October 3 [1889]

“I don't always do what I should. »

Very beautiful letter from Degas, in a friendly and family tone, congratulating his friend on the marriage of her daughter and at the same time giving news of his sister Marguerite who had recently emigrated to Argentina.

_________________________________

“My dear Sophie, only on Sunday when I returned to Paris did I find your good letter. The wedding, if I didn't go (through your fault, or Louise's, or even mine since I was too far away) I saw it in time, enough to write to you and congratulate you on it. So almost all the blame is mine.

I also found, finally!, a letter from Marguerite there , dated August 18, very long, in very good humor, very consoling for us.  The recommendations from your Paz friends look like they should be as helpful and active as we wanted them to be. You gave them a great helping hand, my dear Sophie, and the poor people deserved it. Marguerite was going to write to her friends, she said, to you first. And maybe you will have received something?

Célestine [Marguerite's daughter] had written to me in view of Montevideo, saying that the crossing had been excellent and that everyone was doing well. I could very well have written you something about that as well as about the marriage of your charming Camille. And I didn't, because I don't always do what I should .

Here is the address there; Calle Callao 2037. You are very capable, without waiting for Marguerite to begin, to write to her there, because you are, my dear Sophie, made of a paste of friendship that never dries. Affectionate memories of Berthelot, and compliments to the bride, whose pretty face I still remember, although I have seen far too little of it. Your old friend Degas. »

_________________________________

Sophie Niaudet-Berthelot (1837.1907), niece of Louis Breguet, married Marcellin Berthelot in 1861. Six children were born from this union, including Camille Berthelot (1864.1928), third child of the couple, whose marriage Degas evokes here with Charles Victor Langlois, celebrated at the Temple de l'Oratoire, in Paris, on August 26, 1889. Sophie Niaudet-Berthelot was the first woman buried in the Pantheon, where she rests alongside her husband.

_________________________________

Degas' younger sister, Marguerite (1842-1895) was one of her brother's favorite models. In 1865 she married the architect Henri Fèvre (1828-1900) whom she followed to Buenos Aires in 1889 – a few weeks before this letter. In a delicate financial situation following bad business, Fèvre hoped for a new start in Argentina. Sophie Berthelot seems to have interceded on behalf of the couple as the painter suggests: “ You will have given them a great helping hand, my dear Sophie, and the poor people deserved it. »

Degas never saw his sister again, who died in Argentina in 1895 at the age of 53.