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CT/R
March 9th, 1936

Dear Sir: 

I wish to acknowledge and thank you for your letter of March 6th.  It was indeed unfortunate that you could not have called in to see us while you were in New York, because, as you undoubtedly know, it is very difficult to get a fair impression of a painting either from a photograph, which gives one no idea of the color, or from a description, no matter how detailed it may be.  Anyhow I am enclosing you a photograph of the Renoir about which I wrote you.  The description of which is as follows:

It is a small, full-length portrait of a young girl holding a tambourine, dressed in a typical Neopolitan costume, which is a glittering mixture of red, green, blue, yellow and mauve.  It was probably painted in 1881 at the time of Renoir's trip to Italy, whe[[?]] he stayed in Naples and also in Venice.  His well-known portrait of Wagner was painted in 1882.  As you possibly know, Renoir painted his finest things between the years of '75 and '90.  After the latter date his works started to show signs of a decline in artistic merit, according to general opinion.

The canvas measures 31" in height, by 13-1/2" in width.
The price we are asking for it is $14,000.00.

Now curiously enough, we have this morning received from Paris one of the most beautiful paintings by Renoir that we have ever had, and if you thought you would be at all interested in it from the description I am about to give you, we would be very pleased to send you a photograph of it as soon as we have one made. 

This pictures is called "The Apple Seller", and was painted during the height of the artist's career around 1888.  It shows a group in a wood.  At the left a woman is seen with a curious deep straw hat, wearing a blue apron.  She is bending over to display her basket of apples to a pretty young woman in white, who has two little girls with her; one dressed in pink, and the other in blue, both of whom are seated on the grass.  This painting comes form the former collection of Count Kessler of Weimar, and it was subsequently in the collection of the Marquise de Brion.
It is reproduced in "Meire-Graefe", Vol. III, page 90.

Height: 26"  Width: 21-1/2"
Price........ $30,000.00.

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