Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Myfanwy Evans
Date
15 May 1940
See transcription
Catalogue number
FHL306
Date
15 May 1940
Transcript
Studio - West St, Corfe Castle Dorset May 15th 40
My Dear Myfwany
Feel very bad about not writing. I reproach myself. I have been intending to write for so long but put it off from day to day, not lazily, chiefly because my pen is always so distant from me & my brush so near and my eye for ever turned to something on an easel.
Not that I have been working. Far from it. Muscular rheumatism has kept me indoors, wasted my time & torn my nerves to ribbons aided by the nasty news & the awful aura of Hitler approaching us. I mention the rheumatism to give verisimilitude. But quite privately it has been damnably crippling & playing havoc with my poor joints. I am told the attack goes as suddenly as it comes.
I was made so very happy by what you & John wrote about me and I owe you very particular thanks. It gave to my show all the success I could hope for it and how jolly & right & apt the Braque looked, cliff to cliff my opposite number. By a reverse process we seemed to arrive at pretty nearly the same concept. You wrote deliciously about the Show. I tried to Chant the words – ecstatically. Like poetry they were best said aloud. I like to think my Spring has now flowered without any body seeing it.
The show I think was a democratic success, popular like the Old Vic is popular - of the people. As far as I could see he was nothing high brow about it, with the one exception of the N. S article. The homeliest people spoke to me & said how much they liked it. There was no Duncan Macdonald. There was no Blah! Mr Reid made it sensational by the number of pictures sold.
I am delighted with John Betjeman’s enchanting Book. Please thank your John. You seem to have two Johns. Well I suppose it is alright.
“My Myfanwy ” is something fresh & new as a creation wholly real & breathing & adorable. I shall be looking for (lesser) Myfanwys when I get to Wales as I eventualy hope to do tho’ plans for the moment are in abeyance. Tell John the Frieze has come but I haven't yet unpacked it. Tomorrow shall do so.
Goodness & Beauty must persist dear Myfanwy & Love is the keynote. When shall we meet again? Soon I hope - All my love Frances
Note: Sidebar to this letter -
Did you make the pyjamas? And if so does he look like an El Greco in them?
My Dear Myfwany
Feel very bad about not writing. I reproach myself. I have been intending to write for so long but put it off from day to day, not lazily, chiefly because my pen is always so distant from me & my brush so near and my eye for ever turned to something on an easel.
Not that I have been working. Far from it. Muscular rheumatism has kept me indoors, wasted my time & torn my nerves to ribbons aided by the nasty news & the awful aura of Hitler approaching us. I mention the rheumatism to give verisimilitude. But quite privately it has been damnably crippling & playing havoc with my poor joints. I am told the attack goes as suddenly as it comes.
I was made so very happy by what you & John wrote about me and I owe you very particular thanks. It gave to my show all the success I could hope for it and how jolly & right & apt the Braque looked, cliff to cliff my opposite number. By a reverse process we seemed to arrive at pretty nearly the same concept. You wrote deliciously about the Show. I tried to Chant the words – ecstatically. Like poetry they were best said aloud. I like to think my Spring has now flowered without any body seeing it.
The show I think was a democratic success, popular like the Old Vic is popular - of the people. As far as I could see he was nothing high brow about it, with the one exception of the N. S article. The homeliest people spoke to me & said how much they liked it. There was no Duncan Macdonald. There was no Blah! Mr Reid made it sensational by the number of pictures sold.
I am delighted with John Betjeman’s enchanting Book. Please thank your John. You seem to have two Johns. Well I suppose it is alright.
“My Myfanwy ” is something fresh & new as a creation wholly real & breathing & adorable. I shall be looking for (lesser) Myfanwys when I get to Wales as I eventualy hope to do tho’ plans for the moment are in abeyance. Tell John the Frieze has come but I haven't yet unpacked it. Tomorrow shall do so.
Goodness & Beauty must persist dear Myfanwy & Love is the keynote. When shall we meet again? Soon I hope - All my love Frances
Note: Sidebar to this letter -
Did you make the pyjamas? And if so does he look like an El Greco in them?
Sender's address
Studio - West St - Corfe Castle - Dorset
Credit Line
E
H
McCormick
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