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GEORGES ROUAULT Retrospective Loan Exhibition November, 1940 — March, 1941 THE INSTITUTE OF MODERN ART, BOSTON JAMES S. PLAUT, Director THE PHILLIPS MEMORIAL GALLERY, WASHINGTON DUNCAN PHILLIPS, Director THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART GRACE L. McCANN MORLEY, Director Mr. Germain Seligmann 3 East 51st Street New York, New York Dear Mr. Sleigmann: During the coming winter the Institute of Modern Art, in collaboration with the Phillips Memorial Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Art, will hold the first comprehensive exhibition will be held in Boston from November first through December fourteenth, in Washington during the month of January, and in San Francisco from approximately February tenth through March tenth. In the summer of 1939 we proposed to Monsieur Rouault himself and to several prominent European collectors that they send a considerable number of his major paintings to the United States as the nucleus of an important one-man show, which we nullified by the advent of the European War, and we were ultimately obliged to abandon well-formulated plans to bring a superlative European-owned group here. Although the present exhibition will draw entirely upon American sources, there are roughly one hundred major works now in this country, so that we anticipate no diminution in the quality of the exhibition. We are particularly anxious to include your TWO ROUAULT PAINTINGS which we consider indispensable to the success of the exhibition. We are well aware that we are imposing greatly on your generosity in asking you to relinquish your Rouaults for several months, but we trust that you will find it possible to grant this request. We are confident that the exhibition will go far to establish Rouault's greatness with the American public who, as yet, have only a bowing acquaintance with his art. The exhibiting museums will assume full responsibility for and cost of transportation and insurance. May we ask you, in the event that you kindly consent to lend, to fill out and return the enclosed blanks at your earliest convenience. Very sincerely yours, JAMES PLAUT DUNCAN PHILLIPS GRACE McCANN MORLEY Organizing Committee September 12, 1940
