DEBUSSY (Claude). - Lot 81

DEBUSSY (Claude). Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. 1862-1918. Composer. B.A.S. "Claude Debussy" to "Cher Monsieur Barthou" [Louis Barthou, 1862-1934]. S.l. [Paris], April 14, 1915. 1 page in-12. Pneumatic. Inscription with postmarks and address. Debussy addresses the President of the Council LOUIS BARTHOU asking him to intercede with the Minister of War Alexandre Millerand on behalf of his brother ALFRED [born in 1870, Alfred Debussy is the 4th child (out of 5) in the Debussy family, Claude being the eldest] ...Would you be so kind as to lend me your precious support, once again. It's my brother Alfred Debussy, aged 45, class 90, who has just taken the English interpreter's exams. He is on the list of proposals submitted to the Minister of War, but a recommendation from Mr. Millerand would help him enormously, for, if possible, he would like to be attached to the English staff and not languish in an office... He adds: ...No one better than you, (...), can do that. I apologize for playing the ungrateful role of the statue of Quémandeur [a pun on the statue of the Commander in Dom Juan], but please accept my gratitude and respectful sympathy...Louis Barthou was a center-right politician and writer. He was President of the Council under President Raymond Poincaré from March 1913 to December 1913. Elected to the Académie française in 1919, he was nicknamed the "minister of poets". He was also a bibliophile, art lover and music lover. A great admirer of Debussy, when asked about the latter in 1932, he asserted that "There is in his art an enigma and a bewitchment. LOlympe has more than one home. After Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, Claude Debussy has made his own, where he has settled into an immortality whose cult and radiance France, which he honors, will be able to maintain". Debussy called on Barthou's services on several occasions. In 1908, when Barthou was Minister of Public Works, Debussy asked him to retain his brother Alfred's position as sub-inspector at the Cie du chemin de fer de l'Ouest. In October 1913, Debussy sent him his passport so that Barthou could have it signed by the Russian ambassador, Alexandre Izvolski, in order to be "invulnerable" on his tour of St. Petersburg.