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V  RS ES

November 27, 1925

Dr. W. R. Valentiner
Director of the Institute of Art,
Detroit, Mich.

Dear Mr. Valentiner,

I thank you very much for your kind interest and your reception, and after having seen you, I called on Mrs. Pittman, and I think that we will follow your advice and have our exhibition there. The room has not a very agreeable shape, but we will have to do the best with it.

I also followed your other advice as regards the Van der Heist picture. I showed it to a technician who has a great reputation here and is considered to be the best one. He told me that the signature was unquestionably authentic. He also told me that these ruff collars were in fashion up to about 1675, and were chiefly worn by elderly people who did not immediately adopt the fashion of the flat collars which appeared around 1645, that is why the man and the woman had these ruff collars, and the child in a flat collar, the more so, as an artist would rather stick to an old fashioned costume. We know today quite a number of artists who in spite of the fact that they are rather poor painters, dress as if they were their own grandfathers, and think that it gives them genius.

I hope these lines will find you in good health, and looking forward to seeing you in New York,

With best regards to Mrs. Valentiner, in which my cousin Germain joins me,

Pray believe me,

Yours very sincerely,