Unsigned handwritten letter in French by Renoir, one page, 4.5 x 7, March 3, 1895. Handwritten letter to art dealer Alphonse Portier, on the death of fellow painter Berthe Morisot, the wife of Eugène Manet. In full (translated): "We have just lost a dear friend, Berthe [Morisot] Manet. We are taking her to her last resting place, friends only, Tuesday morning at 10." In fine condition, with a stain touching two words of text.
This significant letter boasts several art-world connections. The recipient, Alphone Portier, was a Paris dealer who sold the work of artists such as Auguste Renoir, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Paul Cézanne, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from his apartment at 54 Rue Lepic-where Theo and Vincent Van Gogh also resided. The subject, Berthe Morisot, one of the great female Impressionist painters, was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet. She died of pneumonia in Paris on March 2, 1895, and was interred in the Cimetière de Passy.
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