ALS in French, written and signed in pencil “Claude Monet,” three pages on two adjoining sheets (the final page in “landscape” orientation), 5 x 8, Giverny par Vernon, Eure letterhead, March 6, 1917. Monet writes to his close friend, art critic Gustave Geffroy (1855–1926). In part (translated): “Madame Jean Monet has given me the task of thanking you for your amiable letter and I address to you the attached letter [not present] mailed on the 18th, asking you to send me the next 2 volumes of Captain Fracasse by [Théophile] Gautier and Gallery of Famous Women by St. Beuve.... I was sorry not to see you after those sad obsequies for our friend. I was so distraught that I let myself get carried away without knowing all that much what I was doing.... Would you be so kind as to send me your article on Dreyfus from Toulouse? I’m coming to Paris ... to see the dentist, but it’s always in haste and quite boring. I’ll drop you a note one of these days to have you come to lunch with me....” At the time of writing, Monet was in the beginning stages of his monumental “Water Lilies” series, a group of large-scale canvases permanently installed in a dedicated gallery at the Orangerie in Paris, where they remain today. Two decades earlier, Geffroy had taken an active role in the efforts to secure the release of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the central figure of the notorious “Dreyfus Affair” that exposed the institutional anti-Semitism of the French military. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope addressed in Monet’s hand. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from PASS-CO. Mailing fold touching first name of signature, otherwise fine, clean condition. An unusually bright and well-preserved example! Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
