Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Ree Gorer
Date
23 Jul 1937
See transcription
Catalogue number
FHL249
Date
23 Jul 1937
Transcript
Sea View Worth Matravers Dorset Friday
My Dearest Rée
My Fate has fixed me in Worth. I hope you & Geoffrey will come here one day when I get fixed properly. Rather than continue a homeless wanderer I am settling down here in a somewhat negative mood, neither liking or disliking the place, but thankful to have it & call it a home.
I started life here with a Studio Shed in the garden & 1 room. Now I have spread over ½ the Farmhouse & occupy quite a good little 3 roomed flat which I am decorating & simplifying to a labour saving level of bareness with E.L. & anthracite stove in the offing. To be installed before the winter.
The house is a one time Vicarage of the Starkest kind. It never has had one single debonair touch. It overlooks the Channel. The mornings are very lovely & I want to paint even before I have finished breakfast. Sunsets splashed yellow & black. Not very exciting landscape.
It has been a very horrid time for weather hasn’t it?
I am ashamed not writing before
I have been busy & ill by turns.
Some days I feel wonderful then every five minutes life comes to bits & has to be put together again.
I continue the treatment. My weight is now down to 9 stone all to the good. But I appear the same which is not so good.
At the moment am nearly buried under a great stack of canvasses I am retouching or repainting for my Show. I paint with fearful slowness – Eyes!
I am having 3 weeks in Brittany from the 29th. When I come back I shall hope to see you & Geoffrey either here or in London.
I watch out for the Publications. Thank goodness he has zipped up Time & Tide with his trenchant tongue. All my love to you both. Always your devoted Frances
Macdonalds came along one day. He called me a ‘wise woman’ for snatching at this place. Even in the rough he liked the look of it. Has Richard has a good season?
My Dearest Rée
My Fate has fixed me in Worth. I hope you & Geoffrey will come here one day when I get fixed properly. Rather than continue a homeless wanderer I am settling down here in a somewhat negative mood, neither liking or disliking the place, but thankful to have it & call it a home.
I started life here with a Studio Shed in the garden & 1 room. Now I have spread over ½ the Farmhouse & occupy quite a good little 3 roomed flat which I am decorating & simplifying to a labour saving level of bareness with E.L. & anthracite stove in the offing. To be installed before the winter.
The house is a one time Vicarage of the Starkest kind. It never has had one single debonair touch. It overlooks the Channel. The mornings are very lovely & I want to paint even before I have finished breakfast. Sunsets splashed yellow & black. Not very exciting landscape.
It has been a very horrid time for weather hasn’t it?
I am ashamed not writing before
I have been busy & ill by turns.
Some days I feel wonderful then every five minutes life comes to bits & has to be put together again.
I continue the treatment. My weight is now down to 9 stone all to the good. But I appear the same which is not so good.
At the moment am nearly buried under a great stack of canvasses I am retouching or repainting for my Show. I paint with fearful slowness – Eyes!
I am having 3 weeks in Brittany from the 29th. When I come back I shall hope to see you & Geoffrey either here or in London.
I watch out for the Publications. Thank goodness he has zipped up Time & Tide with his trenchant tongue. All my love to you both. Always your devoted Frances
Macdonalds came along one day. He called me a ‘wise woman’ for snatching at this place. Even in the rough he liked the look of it. Has Richard has a good season?
Sender's address
Sea View, Worth Matravers, Dorset
Recipient's address
Mrs Gorer, The Elms, Fitzroy Park, Highgate, London N6. Readdressed The Croft, Bradford on Tone, Taunton, Swanage
Credit Line
E
H
McCormick
Archive
of
Frances
Hodgkins'
Letters,
E
H
McCormick
Research
Library,
Auckland
Art
Gallery
Toi
o
Tāmaki