Georges CLEMENCEAU finally marvels at the sculptures of Pierre Puget.

Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)

Autograph letter signed to François Thiébault-Sisson.

Three pages in-8° on letterhead The President of the Council.

Paris, December 25, 1919.

« I'm at the end of a long life »

Clemenceau finally marvels at the sculptures of Pierre Puget.

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« Dear Brother, I will not find the words I would need to thank you for the sentiments which inspired your very kind letter and for the admirable piece of art which you believed should accompany it. I am at the end of a long life and, however tired I may be at certain times, I nevertheless feel the joy of certain approvals no less keenly. This means that yours caused me a very particular pleasure, mixed with an all too explainable boredom at seeing you renounce in my favor the daily contemplation of a piece that I put in the first rank of the most beautiful.

I am only ignorant and I admit that I had only judged Puget until now on the ultra-tormented caryatids of Toulon. It is therefore a new man who appears to me in your company, and this man, as he manifests himself here, cannot be surpassed. Two hours after receiving it, the object took over my work table and from all visitors it was only a cry of admiration . Rest assured that I will be able to do the honors of this true masterpiece in your name and mine. Above all, believe me, your friend G. Clemenceau. »

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François Thiebault-Sisson (1856.1944), journalist and art critic, was an admirer of Claude Monet. He opened the pages of Le Temps for a biographical interview with the master of Giverny, published in November 1900. From 1918, he was one of the fervent actors in the donation of the Water Lilies to the French State.

Originally from Marseille, painter and sculptor, Pierre Puget (1620-1694) had sculpted for the facade of the town hall of Toulon the two Atlanteans which still appear there.

François Sicard (1862-1934), official sculptor of Georges Clemenceau, whose bust and tombstone he made, received in 1908 a commission from the State (Clemenceau was then President of the Council) for a sculpture in homage to “Michel Angel French » Pierre Puget: intended for the Carrousel garden in Paris, it was finally installed in Marseille.