76 - Max ERNST. Letter to his “dear and wonderful friend” Joë Bousquet. Château Air-Bel, Marseille, Saturday [March–April 1941].

Max ERNST. Letter to his “dear and wonderful friend” Joë Bousquet. Château Air-Bel, Marseille, Saturday [March–April 1941]. Signed autograph letter, 1½ pages, in-4. An important letter written from the villa rented by Varian Fry and the American Relief Committee, which served as a refuge in Marseille for many artists and those seeking exile during the first months of the Occupation. Max Ernst thanks Bousquet for his material assistance, his enthusiasm, and for having set things right “in the matter of the sale (or theft) of my house [in Saint-Martin d’Ardèche, which was abandoned when he was interned at the Camp des Milles because he was a German citizen]. “I’m leaving with a light heart, for I’ll know where to return to after the rain.” He reports that his financial situation has greatly improved thanks to the sale of a few paintings at very good prices ($2,000, most of which I’ll receive in America). He is hopeful that he will set sail for the United States on April 30, via Gibraltar and Martinique, thus following the example of Breton and Masson. He hopes to be able to read, once he arrives in New York, the articles by Bousquet that are to appear in *Les Cahiers du Sud*, the journal co-founded by Joë Bousquet and Jean Ballard. In fact, Ernst arrived in the United States in 1941 with Peggy Guggenheim, whom he married shortly thereafter.