French statesman (1851-1925) who briefly served as the Prime Minister of France. Following World War I, he became President of the Council of the League of Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1920. LS in French, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8.25 x 10.75, French Republic (Ministry of Public Education and Fine Arts) letterhead, stamped “Education and Museums,” May 20, 1890. An untranslated handwritten letter from Léon Bourgeois to artist Claude Monet, regarding Édouard Manet’s controversial 1863 oil painting Olympia and whether it should be displayed in the Musée du Luxembourg or the Louvre. The French government acquired the painting in 1890 after a public subscription organized by Claude Monet. In fine condition. With Olympia, Manet reworked the traditional theme of the female nude with his frank depiction of a self-assured prostitute. This work created a scandal upon its exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1865. Although Olympia was the subject of caricatures in the popular press, the French avant-garde community championed the painting, and its significance was appreciated by artists such as Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and later Paul Gauguin. In November 1890, Parisian newspapers announced that Manet's Olympia would be displayed at the Musée du Luxembourg.
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