Viewing page 127 of 144

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

November 15, 1950

Dear Mr. Cecil:

Your very good letter of October 6th remained unanswered for I was expecting momentarily the photographs you were so good as to have ordered.

This nevertheless is no good excuse for my belated answer but I am no able to thank you for those truly lovely prints which I am so pleased to have. I am much obliged to you for also the information you gave me as regards Mr. Jacques Wilhelm's work on the Champaigne portrait. I shall get in touch with him by and by.

There is no hurry however, as I am still working on two manuscripts, but meanwhile am trying to gather as much material as I can.

In the meantime I have also received your letter of October 30th and am pleased to be able to tell you that the four Gobelins tapestries of the Jason series are now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Colt, Morgan, and Avery Memorials, Hartford, 3, Connecticut.

They are namely:

"The Bulls of Mars are subdued by the enchanted herb"

"The soldiers born of the serpent's teeth turn their arm against one another"

"Jason, unfaithful to Medea, marries Creuse, daughter of the King of Corinth"

"Creuse is consumed by the fire of the fatal dress presented to her by Medea"

You are perfectly correct in stating that they had been left with me by the late Lord Moyne and not having been able to dispose of them privately I recommended to the attorneys for the Estate to have them put up at auction at the Parke-Bernet Galleries. This sequence of events is thus verified.

They were then purchased by a private donor who gave them to the above mentioned museum. The director of the museum is Mr. C.C. Cunningham who would be very pleased I feel certain to provide you with any further information you would wish in this connection.

I had never heard of this.....