Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Autograph letter signed ('Claude Monet') to [his friend the painter Frédéric Bazille], Sainte-Adresse, 25 June [1867]
In French. Four pages, 210 x 131mm, on blue squared paper. Provenance: Sotheby's, 27 & 28 November 1986, lot 414.

'I have 20 or so canvases well underway, stunning seascapes and figures and gardens'. Monet is with his father and aunt in Saint-Adresse on the Normandy coast, in excellent working conditions: 'I have my work cut out for me: I have 20 or so canvases well underway, stunning seascapes and figures and gardens, and in short everything; among the seascapes I am doing the regattas at Le Havre with many figures on the beach and the harbour covered in little sails; for the Salon I am doing a huge steam ship ...'. Before leaving Paris he had sold a seascape and a view of Paris, which has enabled him to give some financial help to Camille Doncieux (his future wife, then pregnant with their son Jean), expressing his intense sympathy with her situation ('elle est très gentille très bonne enfant et est devenue raisonnable – et pour cela même m’attriste davantage’), asking Bazille to send some money, especially for when Monet returns to Paris for the birth, and discussing other friends in common. He comments critically on exhibitions by Manet and Courbet: 'even if Courbet has shown some bad stuff he did himself a disservice as he had enough good things not to put everything out; when I left, Manet's sales were starting to become more significant: that will have done him a lot of good. And then there were some good things that I didn't know. The "Femme rose" is bad. He has done better work before than he is doing at the moment'.

'Je me suis taillé beaucoup de besogne, j'ai une vingtaine de toiles en bon train, des marines étourdissantes et des figures et des jardins, et de tout enfin. Parmi mes marines je fais les régates du Havre avec beaucoup de personnages sur la plage et la rade couverte de petites voiles. Pour le Salon je fais un énorme navire à vapeur ... bien que Courbet nous a sorti de mauvaises choses il s’est fait beaucoup de tort car il avait assez de belles choses pour ne pas tout mettre, quand je suis parti, les recettes de Manet commençaient à devenir plus serieuses à lui cela aura fait grand bien. Et puis il y a des choses bien que je ne connaissais pas. La femme rose c’est mauvais. Il a fait mieux qu’il ne fait en ce moment'.

Monet's then-mistress Camille Doncieux (whom he was to marry in 1870) was living in penury in Paris whilst awaiting the birth of their son, Jean, which took place on 9 August: Monet stayed with Camille in Paris for only a few days around the time of the birth, although he returned to live with them the following year, in great financial difficulty. In spite of the family tensions caused by his relationship with Camille, Monet's stay in Saint-Adresse, which was to last well into the autumn, was an intense period of activity, marking a significant step forward in his development as a landscape artist. The painter Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) was Monet's closest friend at this period: he was from a wealthy family, and often gave financial support to fellow artists. Bazille died in August 1870 whilst fighting in the Franco-Prussian War. Monet's letters to Bazille are published in Daniel Wildenstein's biography.