Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Willie Hodgkins
Date
04 May 1940
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Object Detail
Date
04 May 1940
Transcript
Corfe Castle Dorset May 4th 40
My Dearest Willie
I am just back from London where I went for my Show (I think I wrote you about it before starting off). It has been a terrific success both aesthetically & commercially speaking with a total number of 40 pictures sold at close of Show, which was sold completely out. I had an extremely good Press, glowing praise, from the left and from the right. Prices were low. So many who wanted the pictures were young ones who would be debarred at prices we all agreed should be asked, but there is a war on and who knows where it will lead or how develop? It is now very close to us. Within the space of my 3 week Show the ill starred Norwegian business began & ended. Even it didn't appear to be a damper on the sales.
Before hanging my own Show I had the pleasure of seeing the 26 pictures for Venice collected together before being sent off in a specially constructed travelling van. They looked good. Alas they got no further than Paris. News has just come that the French & British Govts have called off the show on account of the political situation, i.e. suspicion of what Mussolini may be up to in the Mediterranean. Isn’t it all a B-Bore. The British Council now proposes showing the pictures in London charging a fee & giving the proceeds to the Red X which I am sure no one will mind at all - but what a sad washout for the artists.
The Lefevre Gallery has been further cheered by a letter from N Z saying payment for the 2 pictures sold would be made in a few week’s time. I shall have to be in London again soon to try & arrive at a settlement as to the future and discuss the matter with the Directors. But now I am going to rest and take a bit of care of myself, after the exhaustion of the long winter & the great output of work. My legacy has come at a perfect moment and no death duties. I am thinking of retreating to Wales for the summer. I have sent you a copy of the New Statesman & Spectator with notices of my work. I hope they will turn up safely. Let me know if they don't. I don't want you & Sis to miss them. Also a Listener.
On my side I have to thank you for the Waitangi Number, wonderful photographs. New Zealanders always look so happy & smiling & prosperous. I search their faces for some sign of remembrance. When I see a picture of a specially large fish I look round for you.
I daren’t talk about the war. It is too near, besides you know as much as I do. Hope is the key note. As one gets nearer to it the more of a growing mystery it becomes. Like Death.
I enjoyed my week in Town in spite of all the war spirit. I had one very good meal at the R Automobile club on my P.V. Day, winding up with cocktails at a party at Edith Sitwells Club. Very entertaining. Plenty of White Ladies to drink & people to talk to & some very pretty dancers from the R. Ballet. Prim & almost unrecognisable in their ordinary day clothes, definitely of another world.
Now back here to humdrum life & work & perhaps next week I set out for Wales. I feel as if I had fallen from a mountain top. Plenty of food still & vegetables of sorts. Today I had two turnip stalks served like asparagus with a difference. Insipid – very. Hope you have the batch of Listeners I sent along. I must ration the papers now that postage is up.
All my love & write when you can. Frances
My Dearest Willie
I am just back from London where I went for my Show (I think I wrote you about it before starting off). It has been a terrific success both aesthetically & commercially speaking with a total number of 40 pictures sold at close of Show, which was sold completely out. I had an extremely good Press, glowing praise, from the left and from the right. Prices were low. So many who wanted the pictures were young ones who would be debarred at prices we all agreed should be asked, but there is a war on and who knows where it will lead or how develop? It is now very close to us. Within the space of my 3 week Show the ill starred Norwegian business began & ended. Even it didn't appear to be a damper on the sales.
Before hanging my own Show I had the pleasure of seeing the 26 pictures for Venice collected together before being sent off in a specially constructed travelling van. They looked good. Alas they got no further than Paris. News has just come that the French & British Govts have called off the show on account of the political situation, i.e. suspicion of what Mussolini may be up to in the Mediterranean. Isn’t it all a B-Bore. The British Council now proposes showing the pictures in London charging a fee & giving the proceeds to the Red X which I am sure no one will mind at all - but what a sad washout for the artists.
The Lefevre Gallery has been further cheered by a letter from N Z saying payment for the 2 pictures sold would be made in a few week’s time. I shall have to be in London again soon to try & arrive at a settlement as to the future and discuss the matter with the Directors. But now I am going to rest and take a bit of care of myself, after the exhaustion of the long winter & the great output of work. My legacy has come at a perfect moment and no death duties. I am thinking of retreating to Wales for the summer. I have sent you a copy of the New Statesman & Spectator with notices of my work. I hope they will turn up safely. Let me know if they don't. I don't want you & Sis to miss them. Also a Listener.
On my side I have to thank you for the Waitangi Number, wonderful photographs. New Zealanders always look so happy & smiling & prosperous. I search their faces for some sign of remembrance. When I see a picture of a specially large fish I look round for you.
I daren’t talk about the war. It is too near, besides you know as much as I do. Hope is the key note. As one gets nearer to it the more of a growing mystery it becomes. Like Death.
I enjoyed my week in Town in spite of all the war spirit. I had one very good meal at the R Automobile club on my P.V. Day, winding up with cocktails at a party at Edith Sitwells Club. Very entertaining. Plenty of White Ladies to drink & people to talk to & some very pretty dancers from the R. Ballet. Prim & almost unrecognisable in their ordinary day clothes, definitely of another world.
Now back here to humdrum life & work & perhaps next week I set out for Wales. I feel as if I had fallen from a mountain top. Plenty of food still & vegetables of sorts. Today I had two turnip stalks served like asparagus with a difference. Insipid – very. Hope you have the batch of Listeners I sent along. I must ration the papers now that postage is up.
All my love & write when you can. Frances
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Corfe Castle, Dorset
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-44
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-44.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23167563
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23167563