Three letters:

An autograph and signed letter from Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) to the writer Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1926)
dated Weimar, 30 November 1919; 1 p. in quarto, inv. no. 2002-A.1172

In this letter Feininger once more expresses his disappointment with the work of Oscar Jespers (1887-1970), of which Van Ostaijen had sent him photographs: Flemish art is inspired with a purely painterly tradition to such a degree that a major effort is needed if a Flemish artist aspires a plastic, purely abstract form. This applies equally to Jespers and to Paul Joostens (1889-1960) – but Feininger has to interrupt himself here, doubtless due to the busy schedule at the Bauhaus about which he complains at the start of the letter. Feininger, who was head of the graphic workshop at the Bauhaus, printed a small woodcut of his own design as letterhead (Vulkan, Prasse W 132 ii).

Feininger met Van Ostaijen in Berlin, where the latter had settled in October 1918 in order to escape conviction as a Flemish activist. Feininger’s low esteem of the work of Oscar Jespers – co-founder with Van Ostaijen of the journal Het sienjaal and responsible for the design and illustration of Van Ostaijen’s collection Bezette stad (Antwerp 1921) – might be the reason for the gradual cooling of their friendship. When Van Ostaijen communicated Feininger’s negative verdict to Jespers he said: 'don’t worry about Feininger’s opinion. He’s getting old and his aesthetics are moving to the right' (Gerrit Borgers, Paul van Ostaijen. Een documentatie, The Hague 1971, part I, p. 275).



An autograph and signed letter from Ilya Repin (1844-1930) to Maria Tenisheva (1867 (?)-1928)
probably written in St Petersburg, dated 16 February 1897, 4 pp. on folded quarto, inv. no. 2002-A.1249

Together with almost forty other letters addressed to the important patron of the arts Princess Maria Tenisheva, the Fondation Custodia had been able to acquire two letters from Russia’s greatest 19th-century painter, Ilya Repin. They complete an ensemble of 59 items already present in the collection (inv. nos. 1993-A.1198/1256), probably now reuniting all the letters from Repin to Tenisheva.

In the letter in question Repin clearly expresses his opinion about a student uprise that took place at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts, of which he had been a professor since 1893. But the letter also deals with a more intimate matter: his difficult relationship with Natalya Nordman, to whom he usually refers in his letters to the princess as ‘Sheherazade’. Indeed, Repin’s letters to Tenisheva are generally marked by a high degree of confidentiality. ‘Forgive me, my dearest,’ he concludes this letter, ‘that I always write to you only of tribulations. I would like so much to tell you all, all.’

Bibl.: I.P. Lapina, "Pis'ma I.E. Repina k knjagine M.K. Tenievoj" in Rerichovskij sbornik, 4 (2001), no. 36, p. 346



An autograph and signed letter from Johann-Georg Wille (1715-1808) to Johann Friedrich Frauenholz (1758-1822), dated Paris, 27 March 1792, 4 pp. on a folded sheet in-quarto, inv. no. 2002-A.1142

Johann-Georg Wille is nowadays remembered less as an engraver than for the diary and the letters he wrote. Both are unique sources for the history of art of both Germany, his native country, and France, where he spent the greatest part of his artistic career. A selection of his letters was recently published for the first time, but the Journal appeared as long ago as 1857.

Wille himself informs us about the genesis of this work in a famous passage from the book in which he paraphrases a letter to a friend who had asked Wille to record his memories. Wille states that those interested will find, after his death, details in his diaries. The letter itself only appeared in 2002 and, together with three others, was acquired for the Frits Lugt Collection, where it supplements an ensemble that already included several letters from this important artist-writer’

Bibl.: Mémoires et journal de J.-G. Wille graveur du roi, G. Duplessis (ed.), Paris 1857, p. xv-xvi, 338-339