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5 E 57th St. November 18th., 1946

Dear F-G,

PRINCESS GOURIELLI:  I have just seen Princess Gourielli, but in view of the fact that she gave me an appointment at her office, I could hardly send her any flowers, and moreover, I am rather glad I didn't as, if she knows you very well, she hardly knows me and with her suspicious mind, for she is suspicious indeed, she would have found it rather strange. Following your advice, I went straight to the point about the La Fresnaye, and she answered me that the fact of her architect taking it down did not imply, necessarily, that she did not like it. To cut a long story short, she did not say that she would not sell it, nor did she say that she would part with it. She is probably going to Mexico about the middle of December and thence to Paris around the sixth or eighth of January, and I am to get in touch with her in three or four weeks to find out how she feels about it, and meanwhile to give her evaluation for the painting. As I have no idea what she paid for it from Pierre Loeb, I am slightly at a loss to know what to say, as too little would be as bad as too much.

VUILLARD: I would like you, if possible, to buy two Vuillards for a friend of mind who saw them a little while ago, in Paris. It is very urgent, and if you buy both of them at the prices indicated, please send me a cable "Vuillard entendu"; if you buy the first and not the second "Vuillard premier"; and if you buy the second "Vuillard second". The first one, representing, "Woman Standing, seen from the back with chair to the left" I am sending you a photostat of, It belongs to Paul Ebstein, 6 rue Ernest Psichari, Paris 7. The price is 16,000 francs. The second Vuillard (of which I have no photograph) is even smaller, I understand, than the first one, and is signed EV or perhaps in full. It represents "Woman Singing", and is also of the very earlier period of the artist, around 1900. It belongs to the Galerie d'Elysee, which is understand is practically opposite the Bernheim Jeune, Faubourg St. Honore. The price is 12,000 francs. Will you ask Rene if he can advance the funds for me for these two paintings, until I can be reimbursed myself by my friend. The paintings, I repeat, once purchased by you, will not be for sale, so that when you have them please photograph the second one, of which I have no photograph, send me a reproduction, and please wrap the two paintings and keep them in your safe for the present.