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important works from European sources. However all this only helped to provoke in me the desire to go and see for myself. So with a growing familiarity of the subject, due to my talk with Davies (who was thoroughly informed) the picture gradually shaped itself. Later in the midst of a painting trip in Nova Scotia I received from him by mail the catalogue of the "Sonderbund" Exhibition then current in Cologne, Germany, together with a brief note stating, "I wish we could have a show like this."

In a flash I was decided. I wired him to secure steamer reservations for me; there was just time to catch the boat which would make it possible to reach Cologne before close of the show. Davies saw me off at the dock. His parting words were, "Go ahead, you can do it!"

The Cologne Exhibition, housed in a temporary building had been well conceived and executed, in fact it became in a measure the model of what we finally did in New York. It contained a grand display of Cezannes and Van Goghs, including also a good representation of the leading living modernists of France. The show had languished through half the summer, much maligned by the citizens, but toward the end burst forth as a great success, with big attendance and many sales. I arrived in

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the town on the last day of the exhibition. In the midst of all the travail of the closing of the show's business, I could get but scant attention from the management. However through the courtesy of one of its directors I was permitted to browse at will during the time of its slow dismantling. Needless to say, I crammed myself with all information possible. Van Gogh's work enthralled me as much as any. I met the sculpture Lehmbruck and secured some his sculpture, also works by Munch, the Norwegian, and many others through the courtesy of the show's management. I received letters to collectors in Holland, departed to The Hauge, where I first laid eyes upon the work of Odilon Redon, the Frenchman up to then unknown in America, and not very much considered in Paris. I felt so sure of Redon's quality that I agreed on my own responsibility to have an entire room in our exhibition devoted to his work. This was fortunate, as Redon became a hit in New York. He sold numerous examples, thereby elevating his market many points in France. At this time he was already over seventy years old. I also secured several of Van Gogh's paintings.

From Holland I took a flying trip to Munich and Berlin, made arrangements for the works of many of the advanced local painters and then was off to

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