255 - [Americana]. Jean DUBUFFET & Tony CURTIS.

[Americana]. Jean DUBUFFET & Tony CURTIS. [Correspondence between two artists]. Le Touquet and Paris, July 29, 1963, August 20, 1963, and January 26, 1964. A collection of 3 handwritten letters exchanged during the early stages of Dubuffet’s creation of *L’Hourloupe* (1962–1974). A typewritten letter from Tony Curtis to Jean Dubuffet, (no place), July 29, 1963. 1 p., in-4. The actor informs the painter that he has acquired one of his paintings and expresses his delight at having it. Jean Dubuffet replies with a handwritten letter, Le Touquet, August 20, 1963. 1 p., in-4. (envelope preserved). Delighted by Curtis’s letter: “I don’t quite have the painting titled *Woman with Bare Breast* in mind, but I believe it is a small painting that was in the possession of Prince Troubetzkoy ( )”—the artist informs him that he is not in Paris, but in the North “I have a studio there where I am working diligently on large paintings of a new style that interest me greatly (during the summer of 1963, while working in his studio in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, he painted the grand landscapes of the Pas-de-Calais, including *La Route d’Etaples*). In his second handwritten letter, from Paris, January 26, 1964. 1 p. In-4 (envelope preserved), he responds to the actor’s greetings: “I am truly grateful to you for the kind esteem you show toward my paintings and myself. I am now working on paintings in a completely new style, which are probably strange and disconcerting.” Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985), the artist who founded Art Brut, a theorist, collector, and creator of paintings, sculptures, and monumental works, left his mark on postwar art through his rejection of academic conventions. Tony Curtis (1925–2010), an iconic American actor of the 1950s and 1960s and star of cult films such as *Spartacus* and *Some Like It Hot*, was an art lover and collector who retired from film to devote himself to painting and photography.