502 - Paul Gauguin Autograph Letter Signed to Camille Pissarro, Mentioning Edgar Degas

Paul Gauguin Autograph Letter Signed to Camille Pissarro, Mentioning Edgar Degas ALS in French, signed “Gauguin,” one page both sides, 4.5 x 7, no date but circa August 1884. Handwritten letter to his friend and mentor, the fellow painter Camille Pissarro, written from Rouen, referring to several members of their artistic circle. Gauguin worries that he has heard nothing from his friend, and fears that he is angry with him; but he may not have received his letter of a fortnight ago "with 2 photographs of my children." He received a visit from Paul Lafond, "a friend of Degas who comes to Rouen quite often; he has been looking for me for two months." As for Eugène Murer, a self-taught painter and collector of the impressionists: "He has been in Paris for quite some time; I believe his hotel business is not going very well. I read in the newspaper a judgment that condemned him for this business with bankruptcy. Now I do not know how important this judgment is." In fine condition. Written during Gauguin’s difficult months in Rouen in 1884, the letter dates from a transitional period when he was attempting to devote himself more fully to painting after abandoning his career as a stockbroker. Financial pressures were mounting, and his family life was becoming increasingly strained, making his connection with Camille Pissarro—an important early mentor and advocate—especially significant. Gauguin’s references to Degas associate Paul Lafond and the collector-painter Eugène Murer vividly place him within the close-knit Impressionist circle that had helped shape his emerging artistic identity. Published in Correspondance de Paul Gauguin, ed. Victor Merlhès, op. 67 (no. 51). Provenance: Camille Pissarro Archives (sale November 21, 1975, no. 66).