KISLING (Moïse). - Lot 135

KISLING (Moïse). Born in Krakow. 1891-1953. French painter and draughtsman of Polish Jewish origin. L.A.S. "Kiki" to ANDRE DAVID. Washington, November 25, 1943. 4 pages in-8. Paper engraved to "Brazilian Embassy, Washington". Countersigned envelope with address (André David, 239 S. Reeves Dr. Beverly Hills, California), stamp and postmarks. Condemned to death by the Third Reich in 1938 for his anti-Nazi activities, and risking his life because of his Jewish origins, Moïse Kisling soon decided to leave France. He went to the United States in 1941, where he lived until his return to France in October 1946. A beautiful letter about his life in America during his exile: ...living here in this Sodom and Gomorrah, I have a mad desire to leave for you, to breathe a little of the much maligned air of Hollywood... Here in Washington, he lives among diplomats who call themselves ... realists, and God only knows what that word implies in terms of the abnegation of all things human... In the short time I've been here, I've had to say goodbye to many things, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find myself at the same table with people I would have killed six weeks ago, if my face retained a charming smile. That's why I won't even try to open the eyes of the important characters I see here by the dozen that Col. Quilla is a bastard, because I know in advance that they'll tell me ?you're a supporter of de Gaulle and you don't understand anything about reality? They push reality to such an extent that they even forget their dead, who were killed by the same gentlemen who gave the order to shoot them. Maybe it's good to forget when you're up against the Nazis and say, first of all, let's win the war and then we'll see. Sometimes I say to myself that the most terrible thing is the Nazi, and as long as they're marching to shoot at us, let's march together. And then what? We'll see! That doesn't stop me from raging when I see how the man who saved France's honor is treated here! Having said that, have you noticed how de Gaulle's speech is in small print on the 5th page of your girlfriend Geneviève's Victoire, and how an equivocal statement by General Bethouard is in large print on the front page? Another reality! Let's move on... You ask me to see Louis Bromfield? Impossible to know where he is (...). I think I'll find him more easily in New York, where I'm returning on the first or second of March. Why don't you write to me there, where I'll be settling for how long? Maybe I'll have to go back here, since the large portrait I've just finished is very successful, and I may have other work here...