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New York 22, N. Y.

December 9, 1960

Dear Franklin:

It was a pleasure indeed to receive your good lines of December 6th for which I hasten to thank you. However, I am disappointed to learn that I shall not have the advantage of seeing you before the end of January - by then I shall certainly be back from Europe.

Your memory is excellent and the two French art historians I had mentioned to you were correctly so - Charles Sterling, Curator of Paintings at the Louvre and Réné Huygue. The latter, after having been Chief Curator of Paintings at the Louvre, is now Professor at the Collège de France. He has furthermore been recently elected to the Académie Française. This, as you know, is quite and exceptional honor, and especially for so young a man. If I am calling this new promotion in the literary world to your attention it is because I am afraid that it will make his coming over for any length of time more difficult than in the past. Nevertheless, I should leave such an answer to him....... in fact, while writing I recall that last spring, just before his election to the Académie, he had spent a few weeks in Canada.

Reverting to Charles Sterling, you will be interested to learn that he will be coming over to the States towards the end of January or February for a course - if I am not mistaken - at The Institute of Fine Arts. Should you wish to communicate with them - Ch. Sterling can of course be can be reached at the Louvre and Réné Huygue's private address is: 3 rue Jacob, Paris VIe.

I have not changed my opinion about them - remembering our conversation of a few years ago - and there is no doubt in my mind that these two men are among the best - if not the best French art scholars of our days, and both speak English - Sterling might have more frequent opportunities of using this language than Huygue.

With kindest thoughts, 

Sincerely yours,

Germain Seligman


Dr. Franklin D. Murphy,
Chancellor
The University of California
Los Angeles 24, California

TP