BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules) - Lot 32

BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules) Born in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. 1808–1889. Writer and journalist. L.A.S. “Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly.” Paris, March 27, 1874. 1½ pages, in-8. Letterhead engraved with his motto “Never more.” Barbey urgently requests that his correspondent use his influence with a painting jury: …The list of members of the Painting Jury has been published. I don’t know a single one of them, but you must know them all; and you promised me, with that grace that distinguishes you, to make your influence available to me and to Mr. G. Lefébure [Gabriel Lefebure, a still-life painter who exhibited at the Salon beginning in 1846]. The portrait’s number is 2677. If you could recommend it enough to secure it a good spot, you would make Mr. Lefébure very happy—and me, by extension. I am presumptuous enough to count on you. Charming women make men conceited. Men do, too. It’s your fault that I am. I’m not being conceited toward you, believing that a word from you—who, when it comes to art, are a Doctor of the Sorbonne—could be decisive…