Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Jane Saunders
Date
30 Jun 1942
See transcription
Catalogue number
FHL362
Date
30 Jun 1942
Transcript
Corfe Castle Tuesday
My Dearest Jane
I was so glad to have your letter of May 12th & to hear better news of your health & general well being. How like you to get round most of your difficulties. You are too jolly competent & sensible a person not to do so, that right. Keep it up & up. That garden of yours sounds stunning. It’s congenial work, trivial if you like, but awfully rewarding even if your back does ache like H----! Whereas painting reduces one to tears & misery – peaks of ecstacy – depths of disillusion, depending on how deep you go in search of truth & how long you can stay alone. To attain to all this you have to be a pretty self contained & strong minded & very selfish. IS it worth the sacrifice. You say you fear you are “unbalanced tempermentally”. From the Manchester High School point of view you may be – but I prefer to call it vision imagination & rejoice in it. Some wise person said the other day that all art talk is arrant nonsense, – half believing it to be true I’ll shut up. Any way I have no time for letters nor have you. These long days stretch out & I find myself finding jobs to do at 11 o’c p.m. Awake at 5 a.m. aching for a cup of tea & nobody to give it to me. This is loneliness!
As you say I need a kind “body” to look after me. I do indeed. If only I could cast myself adrift from this old white elephant incubus of a Studio & its 2 appealing adjacent damp little rooms sitting & bedroom, one up – one down for which I pay £8 p.a.! Sounds ideal, between which I come & go & spend my days. A pleasant faced neighbour puts in an hour tidying up & is always there in case I need her. My mid day meal at the Inn for whichI pay 3/- a time.
To come to addresses. I have collected quite a few round Harlech & Breca parts of Wales I am told are teeming with stuff, (quite so but is it your stuff?) You must see a place yourself. I would rather avoid the coast estuaries & so on.
I’ll let you hear what I decide to do & if it is within reasonable distance I hope you’ll be able to come & see me.
I expect you’ll find heaps of work (not painting) to do in your caravan & loft etc work which is really very important to your comfort & harmony.
Much love dear Jane and no more writing for the moment – in these incredible times we are living through. Frances
Perhaps Horizon sent you a card for the show they are organising – for Russia. Here it is –
Cranky Country Lady
Deaf Farmer & Sister
Not quite my cup of tea but sound interesting.
My Dearest Jane
I was so glad to have your letter of May 12th & to hear better news of your health & general well being. How like you to get round most of your difficulties. You are too jolly competent & sensible a person not to do so, that right. Keep it up & up. That garden of yours sounds stunning. It’s congenial work, trivial if you like, but awfully rewarding even if your back does ache like H----! Whereas painting reduces one to tears & misery – peaks of ecstacy – depths of disillusion, depending on how deep you go in search of truth & how long you can stay alone. To attain to all this you have to be a pretty self contained & strong minded & very selfish. IS it worth the sacrifice. You say you fear you are “unbalanced tempermentally”. From the Manchester High School point of view you may be – but I prefer to call it vision imagination & rejoice in it. Some wise person said the other day that all art talk is arrant nonsense, – half believing it to be true I’ll shut up. Any way I have no time for letters nor have you. These long days stretch out & I find myself finding jobs to do at 11 o’c p.m. Awake at 5 a.m. aching for a cup of tea & nobody to give it to me. This is loneliness!
As you say I need a kind “body” to look after me. I do indeed. If only I could cast myself adrift from this old white elephant incubus of a Studio & its 2 appealing adjacent damp little rooms sitting & bedroom, one up – one down for which I pay £8 p.a.! Sounds ideal, between which I come & go & spend my days. A pleasant faced neighbour puts in an hour tidying up & is always there in case I need her. My mid day meal at the Inn for whichI pay 3/- a time.
To come to addresses. I have collected quite a few round Harlech & Breca parts of Wales I am told are teeming with stuff, (quite so but is it your stuff?) You must see a place yourself. I would rather avoid the coast estuaries & so on.
I’ll let you hear what I decide to do & if it is within reasonable distance I hope you’ll be able to come & see me.
I expect you’ll find heaps of work (not painting) to do in your caravan & loft etc work which is really very important to your comfort & harmony.
Much love dear Jane and no more writing for the moment – in these incredible times we are living through. Frances
Perhaps Horizon sent you a card for the show they are organising – for Russia. Here it is –
Cranky Country Lady
Deaf Farmer & Sister
Not quite my cup of tea but sound interesting.
Sender's address
Corfe Castle
Credit Line
E
H
McCormick
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