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May 18, 1953

Dear Dick:

Your note of May 25th was particularly pleasant to receive and am delighted to hear of your decision to acquire the water color by Gericault and happy that it will be in such good company.

There is no doubt in my mind that it is one of the most important water colors by the artist and the documentation Dr. Klaus Berger links with it adds considerable interest to it.

Within the next day or so you will receive my firm's invoice and by the same token I shall forward to you photostats of the prints of the Maipu Battle and the Chacabuco Battle, as I know you would like to have them for your files.

A few days ago I also received your museum's bulletin and want to congratulate you on the purchase of "la Vie Conjugale" by La Fresnaye. If only indirectly it is, nevertheless, one of my "children" who goes to your museum and proud I am indeed to have owned this beautiful painting. Though I am delighted to know that it has now a permanent home in Minnesota, I am truly at a loss to understand how Mr. Leigh Block could have parted with so important a canvas and by an artist who played such an important role in the evolution of art in France in the first quarter of the century and whose works are so rare in view of his untimely death. Be this as it may my renewed congratulations go to you and Mr. Russell Plimpton. Please convey them to him on your great purchase.

With kindest thoughts to Phyllis and to you,

Sincerely,

(Germain Seligman)

Richard S. Davis, Esq.
Wayzata 5,
Minnesota.

[[right margin]] Davis, Richard [[/right margin]]