Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Myfanwy Evans
Date
08 Jun 1944
See transcription
Catalogue number
FHL418
Date
08 Jun 1944
Transcript
Studio Corfe Castle Dorset June 8th 1944
My Dear Myfwany
I was very happy to get your letter. It has cleared the air. I am so glad to have it.
You are a large hearted woman. If you are feeling neglected I am feeling an outcast as well as a bit of a dam fool for caring whether I appear with the first 4 Penguins or the last four.
I have been wholly miserable for one reason & another and have searched my conscience. I appear to have behaved like a bounder and no wonder you felt annoyed. I suppose it is not too late to make amends to Vogue? If possible it should be done. It is as long ago as last July that you wrote to me I think we were both on holiday, you in Cornwall & I in Cerne Abbas. I remember were both hectic & oppressed with affairs. I meant to answer the letter & was quite enthusiastic about it but there was some hesitation in my mind about the “early photographs” & “following Sickert” which puzzled me. So my reply never got written & to my grief I realised too late that I had let you down & thus lost you a useful bit of work plus cheque. Do forgive me.
I have a very real & valid excuse in the state of my health which for the last 2 years has been, on & off, rotten. Loss of memory is my chief physical trial at present.
As to the Penguin Book I am so glad to hear that you mean to let me see the illustrations soon. I can’t help feeling fussy about them because, admittedly my work does not reproduce well.
I do realise dear Myfwany your endless difficulties in the way of writing about me truthfully & intimately. It is painful to go too near the bone and as you say “disgruntling all round”.
Is it possible that I have been writing “chatty” letters? Through the same fruitful source I heard pretty things about you & your babies “Myfanwy is marvellous”. A perfect Douanier Rousseau. Why wasn’t I there to admire you?
How monstrous it is that you were working so hard without help enough. Shall we ever be back to normal? Yes!
Indeed I do wish we could meet. I see no chance of London yet. The ban in this area is rigid. I have tied myself to a date in the early Spring 1945 at the Leicester Galliers.
You will bear in mind what I feel about Vogue without being abject I would like them to know I am penitent. I must rid of these little Sins that betray me so awkwardly.
You have been sweet to me.
My love Frances.
My Dear Myfwany
I was very happy to get your letter. It has cleared the air. I am so glad to have it.
You are a large hearted woman. If you are feeling neglected I am feeling an outcast as well as a bit of a dam fool for caring whether I appear with the first 4 Penguins or the last four.
I have been wholly miserable for one reason & another and have searched my conscience. I appear to have behaved like a bounder and no wonder you felt annoyed. I suppose it is not too late to make amends to Vogue? If possible it should be done. It is as long ago as last July that you wrote to me I think we were both on holiday, you in Cornwall & I in Cerne Abbas. I remember were both hectic & oppressed with affairs. I meant to answer the letter & was quite enthusiastic about it but there was some hesitation in my mind about the “early photographs” & “following Sickert” which puzzled me. So my reply never got written & to my grief I realised too late that I had let you down & thus lost you a useful bit of work plus cheque. Do forgive me.
I have a very real & valid excuse in the state of my health which for the last 2 years has been, on & off, rotten. Loss of memory is my chief physical trial at present.
As to the Penguin Book I am so glad to hear that you mean to let me see the illustrations soon. I can’t help feeling fussy about them because, admittedly my work does not reproduce well.
I do realise dear Myfwany your endless difficulties in the way of writing about me truthfully & intimately. It is painful to go too near the bone and as you say “disgruntling all round”.
Is it possible that I have been writing “chatty” letters? Through the same fruitful source I heard pretty things about you & your babies “Myfanwy is marvellous”. A perfect Douanier Rousseau. Why wasn’t I there to admire you?
How monstrous it is that you were working so hard without help enough. Shall we ever be back to normal? Yes!
Indeed I do wish we could meet. I see no chance of London yet. The ban in this area is rigid. I have tied myself to a date in the early Spring 1945 at the Leicester Galliers.
You will bear in mind what I feel about Vogue without being abject I would like them to know I am penitent. I must rid of these little Sins that betray me so awkwardly.
You have been sweet to me.
My love Frances.
Sender's address
Studio, Corfe Castle, Dorset
Credit Line
E
H
McCormick
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