Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Willie Hodgkins
Date
12 Sep 1941
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Object Detail
Date
12 Sep 1941
Transcript
Studio East St Corfe Castle Dorset Sept 12th ‘41
My Dearest Willie
I don’t remember whether I have written since getting back here (by road) from Newbury & how ever since I have been sitting about in the garden with my feet up enjoying the late summer sun & slowing getting better & stronger. Every one tells me it will pay me to do so for some months yet, perhaps even a year – a very boring prospect but one I must face knowing it wise. This dieting business is a nuisance if not yet a real menace the right sort of foods are scarce. I am passing through a stage of hunger when any sort of food is nice – if only they would give it to me!
I have had the most lovely surprise within these last 3 weeks. The gift of butter, marmalade & tongues & potted meat, 3 parcels, came quickly & safe through the Bank sent by Issy & Frances Rattray. Did you ever know anything so kind? I was bitterly disappointed I was not allowed to start eating them all at once, as they came, one by one – how thankful we shall be, if there is an invasion, to have something in reserve. Butter, specially most awfully good, the sight of it made me feel well & strong again & the taste of it on real bread too heavenly & meant to have some symbolic significance. It seems to me that bread & butter is the only thing in this life that has a quite real meaning – apart from of course Art. But I talk nonsense.
A Show of my work is fixed up for opening next week at the Leicester Galls & looks like being a great success. I haven’t anything to worry about as it is all being done for me by a young group of friends, writers & painters backed by Sir Kenneth Clark, director Nat: Gallery who thinks I must have a Civil List Pension (for no other reason I can see than that they like my painting & don’t like the idea of my being in want during the time I am forced to put aside my work). The Leicester Galleries are very keen on my Show & are giving me their best Rooms. It is to be hoped Hitler will be too occupied where he now is to bother about dropping bombs on my pictures. It is a big gamble but doubly worth it from every point of view. The artist, these times, must live dangerously or not at all. The gallery take no commission usually it is 33%. I hope the Show will sell right out but I doubt it. Of course I am not going up to see it. There are plenty of people guarding my interests & watching over it. I do hope it is a terrific success & will justify the venture.
Better keep quiet about all this till my next letter confirming it. I’ll write as soon as there is any news to tell you.
What I should love more than anything would be a lb of butter please to help the wheels go round. Am I greedy?
I hope by now you have got over your heartbreak and have found a new love. It sounds heartless but is good sense – one needs animal friends for so many reasons, companionship, decoration, warmth & so on. Quiet here, no bombing, but one never knows. Love to you both. Frances
Send a line to Issy or Frances thanking them. Do please.
My Dearest Willie
I don’t remember whether I have written since getting back here (by road) from Newbury & how ever since I have been sitting about in the garden with my feet up enjoying the late summer sun & slowing getting better & stronger. Every one tells me it will pay me to do so for some months yet, perhaps even a year – a very boring prospect but one I must face knowing it wise. This dieting business is a nuisance if not yet a real menace the right sort of foods are scarce. I am passing through a stage of hunger when any sort of food is nice – if only they would give it to me!
I have had the most lovely surprise within these last 3 weeks. The gift of butter, marmalade & tongues & potted meat, 3 parcels, came quickly & safe through the Bank sent by Issy & Frances Rattray. Did you ever know anything so kind? I was bitterly disappointed I was not allowed to start eating them all at once, as they came, one by one – how thankful we shall be, if there is an invasion, to have something in reserve. Butter, specially most awfully good, the sight of it made me feel well & strong again & the taste of it on real bread too heavenly & meant to have some symbolic significance. It seems to me that bread & butter is the only thing in this life that has a quite real meaning – apart from of course Art. But I talk nonsense.
A Show of my work is fixed up for opening next week at the Leicester Galls & looks like being a great success. I haven’t anything to worry about as it is all being done for me by a young group of friends, writers & painters backed by Sir Kenneth Clark, director Nat: Gallery who thinks I must have a Civil List Pension (for no other reason I can see than that they like my painting & don’t like the idea of my being in want during the time I am forced to put aside my work). The Leicester Galleries are very keen on my Show & are giving me their best Rooms. It is to be hoped Hitler will be too occupied where he now is to bother about dropping bombs on my pictures. It is a big gamble but doubly worth it from every point of view. The artist, these times, must live dangerously or not at all. The gallery take no commission usually it is 33%. I hope the Show will sell right out but I doubt it. Of course I am not going up to see it. There are plenty of people guarding my interests & watching over it. I do hope it is a terrific success & will justify the venture.
Better keep quiet about all this till my next letter confirming it. I’ll write as soon as there is any news to tell you.
What I should love more than anything would be a lb of butter please to help the wheels go round. Am I greedy?
I hope by now you have got over your heartbreak and have found a new love. It sounds heartless but is good sense – one needs animal friends for so many reasons, companionship, decoration, warmth & so on. Quiet here, no bombing, but one never knows. Love to you both. Frances
Send a line to Issy or Frances thanking them. Do please.
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Studio, East St., Corfe Castle, Dorset
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-45
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-45.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22397035
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22397035