Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
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|---|---|
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| passage deleted by overwritten added letters | |
| passage added above the line | passage with added text above |
| passage added on the line | passage with added text inline |
| passage added in the margin | passage with text added in margin |
| handwritten addition to a typewritten letter | typed passage with added handwritten text |
| missing or unreadable text | missing text noted with "[illegible]" |
| uncertain transcriptions | word[?] |
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| printed letterhead text | printed text |
| text printed on postcards, envelopes, etc. | printed text |
| text of date and place stamps | stamped text |
| passage written by Cather on separate enclosure. | written text |
VILLE-D'AVRAY2 19, RUE DE SÈVRES
VILLE D'AVRAY
SEINE ET OISE August 1st Dear Judge Vinsonhaler1:
I have a letter from Léon Bakst3 this morning asking me to begin the sittings on Monday, August 6, at his studio, 120 Boul. Malesherbes. He says he hopes to be able to accomplish "not only an extreme resemblance, but a psychological likeness." I will pose for the head and shoulders only—anything larger would be much more expensive and would take more time that either Mr. Bakst or I now wish to give. He will require about twelve sittings. I will go into Paris4 and stay for two or three weeks at a hotel not far from his studio. If the weather is wet, it may take longer, as the paint must dry between sittings.
He has made me the very moderate price of one thousand dollars, but I beg you
do not make that fact public, as it is only half his usual price for a head
in oils. You must, of course, inform your committee, but ADRESSE
TÉLÉGRAPHIQUE
VILLE-D'AVRAY19, RUE DE SÈVRES
VILLE D'AVRAY
SEINE ET OISEplease see
that the price does not get into the newspapers. Bakst is going to N
America5 in December, and it would
not be fair to make public a price which is lower than his usual one. I
think I would like to pay him in the last week of August, before I start for
Aix-les-Bains6 and Switzerland7. I had my rooms at Aix
reserved for August, and am really staying in town because this is the one
month when there is any chance of getting Bakst to do the picture for you.
As I wrote you, I don't know how good a likeness it will be, but I know it
will be a good picture. If it should not be what you want, you must not hold
me responsible, for I've done my best. We'll hope for the best, anyway!
I forgot to say that in his letter Bakst says he believes that he believes that in this portrait I will assist him to produce "an important work of art."
Mr. Duncan M. Vinsonhaler1 First National Bank Building Omaha8 Nebraska U. S. A. VERSAILLES PARIS9 2 -8 23 Via S.S. BerengariaWilla CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0691.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0691
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto of each leaf only. Includes an enclosed article about Léon Bakst and one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Duncan M. Vinsonhaler 1
- Date letter was written
- August 1 [1923]
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes enclosed magazine article entitled "Léon Bakst: et les Décors de 'Phædre'."
- Place letter was written
- Ville d'Avray, Île-de-France, France2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library (6494), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA
Person Annotations
Vinsonhaler, Duncan MacArthur (1867-1954). American judge. Born in Missouri, Duncan MacArthur Vinsonhaler married Isabelle Ellison in Kirksville, MO, in 1889, and received a law degree from Michigan University in 1891. Vinsonhaler served as judge of Douglas County, Nebraska (1900-1906) and as a senior member of the firm Vinsonhaler, McGuckin & Caldwell in Omaha, NE. In 1922 Vinsonhaler wrote Willa Cather a letter praising One of Ours (1922), and in 1923 Vinsonhaler and Cather corresponded about Léon Bakst’s portrait of Cather commissioned by a group of women in in Omaha, NE.
Bakst, Léon (1866-1924). Russian painter and theatrical
designer. Born in Russia, Lejb-Khaim Rosenberg decided to become
an artist when he was twelve. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of
Arts. In 1889 he took the surname Bakst. In 1893 Bakst went to Paris to
study for four years, becoming a part of Sergei Diaghilev’s avant-garde
artistic group. He became known as a portraitist in the early twentieth
century, then in 1909 turned to stage and costume design for Diaghilev and
the Ballets Russes, the work for which he is now best known. In 1922 he
visited the U.S., where his friend and patron Alice Warder Garrett had
organized exhibitions of his work. Willa Cather met Bakst in Paris in 1923.
When a women’s federation in Omaha was raising funds to have a portrait
painted of her, Bakst suggested he do the portrait. Cather enjoyed talking
with Bakst during the sittings, but, like other viewers, she had mixed
reactions to the finished portrait.
Place Annotations
