21 - 1897–1935.

1897–1935. MANUSCRIPT. (LETTERS). APELES MESTRES:. LOT OF 22 LETTERS WRITTEN AND SIGNED BY THE WRITER AND ARTIST, PLUS A SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT. We present 22 letters written and signed by Apeles Mestres at various times; some are postcards, while others are written on paper bearing the author’s monogram in red or black. Many of the letters are addressed to the writer M. Marinel·lo. In one, he thanks him for sending a book and for the dedication; this is the case with the letter written in May 1892, in which he thanks him for sending his work *Primerencas* and offers him some advice on poetry; years later, another letter addressed to the same author takes a reproachful tone due to a misunderstanding (dated 1897), although there must have been a reconciliation, as by the early 20th century a friendly tone once again prevails in the correspondence. In the letter she sent him in 1907, she discusses his masterpiece and the excitement she feels about its imminent publication at the end of the year; the title of the work is “Liliana”; she takes particular pleasure in explaining that the drawings are “numerous and in which I have put everything I had yet been able to or known how to draw.” In a postcard, he invites him to show him the publication first. The latest letter in the collection was written in 1935, in barely legible handwriting and with a more irregular stroke; by that time, the writer and illustrator had practically lost his sight. The collection also includes a letter from the “Sindicat D’autors dramàtics catalans” (Union of Catalan Playwrights), signed by Apeles Mestres as president and M. Folch y Torres as secretary. Next is a signed photograph, and the collection is rounded out by a postcard featuring a drawing by A. Mestres and handwriting by his wife Laura, addressed to Narcisa Pallés. All are written in Catalan except for this last one from Laura, which is in French.