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May 17th., 1948

Dear Sir:

I am much obliged to you for your letter of May 5th., and as regards the matter of the six months option I have been asking you for, I shall not press this question until I am faced with some more definite proposition.

There are several points, however, which I find need to be taken up. You write under (c) that though "It was not the artist's intention to relieve the pictures with color, Several of the motives have also been painted in color"............" May I inquire what you intend to convey by this statement. Is it to mean that some copies of these paintings were made in color?

Then as regards the photographs, I am sorry indeed to have to come back to this topic, as werare dealing here with technicians, in other words with people who are used to examining paintings from photographs, which give a direct view of the paintings, with no deformation or transformation, as I am too, and are unable to judge a painting from reproductions, as they appear in the very beautiful book we have at hand. You certainly realize that these reproductions were made, as they are today, with the purpose of appealing to a large public, not versed in the technique of painting but whose interest is strictly limited to the subject matter, in other words, in the scenes they represent. Hence the necessity of supplying us with photographs * of at least two or three of the paintings, should you object too strongly to having the five which I mentioned previously photographed. If I may repeat myself, as per the book, numbers 11 - 12 - 14 - 16 - 17.

In fact, though I am certainly anticipating future events, I hardly believe that an actual purchase could be made without the interested parties having an opportunity of seeing the paintings themselves ultimately.

You were good enough to tell me that when you would be back in Leicester, you would send me details regarding a book or a lecture given in London by Mr. Alfred N. Oppenheim, and if you could communicate to me also the catalogue of the Ben Uri Art Gallery, which being a recent one is less valuable to you than the earlier ones in Cologne, it could be of help at present.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely yours,

(Germain Seligman)

S.S. Cramer, Esq.
c/o Vitron Products, Ltd.
8 Market St.
Leicester, England


*(8" x 11" black and white)

TP