Lot n° 305
Estimation :
2000 - 3000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 2 800EUR
GOUNOD Charles.
61 L.A.S. " Ch. Gounod ", Saint-Cloud,
Morainville, Nieuport 1885-1893, to
Madame Jules SIMON (and her husband); 109 pages in-8 or in-12.
Beautiful friendly correspondence.
Gounod became linked with the academician, historian and minister Jules SIMON (1814-1896), and his wife Émilie née Boissonnet (1826-1900), collaborator of her husband and woman of letters. At the end of his life, he will make a stay almost every year with them¸ in their villa of Villers-sur-Mer.
The first stay takes place from August 27 to September 2, 1885 and Gounod asks how to arrive at Villers to go then to Trouville or Morainville. He hopes to see them in the autumn at the Opera: " Friendship and music, together and at the same time, that is a small corner of this beatitude which will consist in the "simultaneity of all joys" "; but Paris is " the Babylon (or Babel) of intelligences and wills ". 1886. At the beginning of August he will be at the Beaucourt's in Morainville and will come to Villers only at the end of the month; but the death of his nephew Henri Pigache makes him give up his plans. 1887. He forgot a red silk tie in Villers and is overwhelmed by his correspondence: "I am still fishing the musician out of the river of daily obligations. If only it were a matter of fishing him out!
But he has to be removed from the water, like those who drown. "The mass of 22 September at St Eustache will be performed for the benefit of the
Secours et pensions de l'Association des
Artistes Musiciens founded by Baron
Taylor [Mass in memory of Joan of Arc created on 24 July in Reims]. On October 9, he announces the birth of his daughter's son
Jeanne. 1888. He arrives in Villers at the beginning of August and receives in Morainville the umbrella he had forgotten there; in September he comes to spend a day in Villers and brings his Waltz; he thinks about "the day of fatigue that our dear
Jules is spending! Let us hope he will not come out of it too exhausted"; he has taken up his "conductor's baton that I must hold during the first three performances" [Romeo and Juliet, premiered on 29 November at the Opéra]: he is exhausted: "Music is a beautiful art! but what a job!"... He had to rehearse the Patti. Tired, he went to quit smoking. 1889. Mrs. Simon complained about his silence: "Paris is impossible: you know everyone there, and you can't find a way to see anyone, you live in tatters. On June 19, he refutes the rumor that he had made a recommendation for Palicot: "I do not want anyone to beat the bass drum with my name. He feels very tired during this summer and has to take care of himself; he will however attend the funeral of Mrs Érard in October. 1890. July 25: "I have aged much more than two years since then, and it is now the months that play the role of years. He is advised against the sea air; he needs rest and silence: "our modern society is dying of this: agitation instead of activity. That is the truth; fever has replaced life. 25 September, curious letter: he has passed on "your letter to Mozart. He has such a marvellous ear that he knew it before me; he had heard you write it; I think he is the only one of that strength. The fact is that he now knows more about the properties of the astral (or sidereal, as you will call it) body than we do. He will not go to Villers for the summer anymore and the letters from 1891 to 1893 become health bulletins: fatigue, bronchitis, colds, visual problems (one is dictated to his daughter Jeanne), or New Year's words...
2 l.a.s. from Alice Gounod to Mme
Simon ; and 2 l.a.s. to Gounod by Jules and
Émilie Simon.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue