Raoul DUFY – Two long autograph letters signed on his painting.

Raoul DUFY (1877.1953)

A set of two long, signed autograph letters

to the collector couple Alfred and Germaine Rome.

Seven and a half pages in-8° in total. An autographed envelope.

Slight traces of adhesive on the edges.

Vence, July 1, ¹⁹²⁰ and Saturday, November 24 [1920]

"I may seem to forget my friends, but that's just an appearance; it's for them and their wives that I make beautiful fabrics, illustrate books, and paint." 

An interesting testimony to the tapestry creations initiated by Raoul Dufy at the dawn of the 1920s. The artist, overwhelmed with various artistic works, nevertheless showed himself determined to satisfy his loyal collectors.

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"Dear Madam, I am receiving your letter here before I have had the courtesy to announce that I have sent you a copy. It's true you were expecting it! I have sent you two sketches that complement each other. As you can see, there is considerable room for your interpretation, which I believe is for the best, especially with an interpreter who is knowledgeable about the subject. I had intended to make you a more refined cartoon, which is what delayed my sending it. I am pleased that you like it as it is, and I am certain that you will make a beautiful tapestry. I believe that medium-weight wool will be better than fine wool."

I am obviously very busy and even here I work a lot . I have so much to do and it is so long and so difficult to give oneself a little satisfaction, that one has to undertake many projects in order to occasionally complete one successfully .

I regret not seeing Monsieur Rome during a visit to Paris. We ourselves will be returning to Paris via Marseille, where I am to make drawings to illustrate a novel by Eugène Montfort, and so we will not be able to repeat that wonderful trip of last year, which left us with such fond memories of the beautiful landscapes of the Dauphiné and the gracious welcome you and your friends from Grenoble so kindly extended to us. Believe me, it will be a great pleasure for us to experience your warm hospitality once again.

Please convey to your husband our warmest regards and, with fond memories of my wife, please accept my most respectful regards from your Raoul Dufy

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"Dear Sir, Please excuse my delay in replying. I intended to send you this letter along with the tapestry cartoon I promised to Madame Rome. I will not be able to do so this evening. I still have a few hours of work to complete my sketch so that it is entirely worthy of the form it will take under the graceful hands that will weave it ."

Here are the dimensions of the panel, which can be reduced to suit Madame Rome's needs: width ^m – height ^m including the border. The border is 0.05 ^m wide. It can be woven into the panel or attached separately. I am replying to Madame Rome regarding the wool I will send her, as she requested, and providing her with the necessary instructions for its execution.

I am due to come to Grenoble with Poiret; it will most likely be in the first few days of December. The very fond memories my wife and I have of our stay in your country strongly encourage us to travel there again, but my numerous and varied tasks require me to work diligently here .

I'm so excited to see my upholstery fabric collection finished, and I've been working on it almost entirely for the past few months. I've created some new designs that I hope you'll like.

I was very happy about Farcy's [Pierre-André Farcy, curator of the Grenoble museum] , both for himself and his personal merits, and also because he owes it to his friends in Grenoble.

Please excuse again the delay in fulfilling my promise and replying to your letters. I have a lot of correspondence to catch up on, and I seem to be forgetting my friends, but that's only an appearance. It's for them and their wives that I make beautiful fabrics, illustrate books, and paint . It's for you, dear Sir, that I'm not writing, but I'm thinking of you. I send you my warmest regards. Raoul Dufy.

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Dufy's textile adventure began around 1910 with the couturier and decorator Paul Poiret; together, they created clothing and furnishing fabrics, as well as wall hangings using the same fabric printing process, but on a larger scale that led him to develop his designs into expansive compositions, similar to those of tapestries. Like Paul Poiret, Dufy designed wool and silk handbags woven at the Beauvais factory in the late 1920s.