HUYSMANS Autographed letter signed to Louise Desborde Renouard Whistler 1902

  
Size: 10 x 9 cm / With included magnetic display frame: 16 x 12 cm. Huysmans maintained a long friendship with the symbolist painter Louise Desbordes, whom he particularly admired, regularly praising her talent in his art critiques.

The author also owned several works and studies of flowers by Desbordes, which he contemplated daily in his small apartment on Rue de Babylone. The exhibition of Louise Desbordes ultimately took place just a few months later, in March and April 1903. (Temporary exhibition in one of the museum's rooms used by Léonce Bénédite to showcase contemporary artists). Huysmans would write a review of it in L'Écho de Paris. He repeated to me that he was delighted to host the exhibition at his place.

[at the Musée du Luxembourg]. It would likely take place in July, probably between the one by Renouard that he is preparing and the one by Whistler that would come afterward. He seems to want to take care of everything and would like to see you. So, go visit him at the Musée du Luxembourg where he is in the afternoon; I believe he would surely be there around 3 or 4 o'clock on Saturday. There would be many other things to discuss, but I will tell you about them in person. “The landscapes of Mademoiselle Desbordes are not copies of nature; they are states of soul. She conveys the sadness of twilight and the solitude of gardens with a discretion and subtlety of shades that can only be found in the very greatest intimists.” Huysmans, Art Chronicle, L'Echo de Paris, April 14, 1903. Below, oil on canvas by Louise Desbordes.

Below, a photograph of Huysmans standing, in a very modern pose, by André Taponier, 1904.