Édouard Manet
A rebellious painter shocks the French Salon and courts his brothers wife
1832 – 1883I went to see Monet yesterday and found him in despair and absolutely broke. He asked me to find someone who would take between ten and twenty pictures of their choice for 100 francs a piece. Shall we do the deal ourselves, putting up 500 francs each? Of course no one, and least of all he, should know that we're in on this. I thought of trying to find a dealer or collector but suspect they might refuse. Unfortunately, it takes people as knowledgeable as we are to do a good piece of business, in spite of the repugnance we may feel, in order to help out a talented artist. Send me an answer as soon as possible or suggest a rendezvous.
I've seen Monet recently and he’s absolutely broke; he wants to get hold of a thousand-franc bill and for that he’s offering 10 pictures of one’s cboice. If you have 500 francs at your disposal we could do the deal together - as far as I'm concerned, I know that with 5 paintings that I could dispose of for a profit of at least 100 francs, we would recover our outlay almost immediately - If you're game, send me a cheque for 500 francs and I’ll go and collect the canvases from him. Obviously he mustn't know that we are the ones doing the deal - but I've tried other people and no one dares take the risk - it’s just absurd.