[Gauguin (Paul)] - Lot 34

[Gauguin (Paul)] Autograph letter signed from Émile Schuffenecker to Paul Gauguin. Paris, January 29, 1891. 6 pages (23 x 18 cm). Folder by Devauchelle. Hallucinating autograph letter signed by Schuffenecker, full of reproaches and recriminations testifying to the exhaustion of a twenty-year friendship ("you'll never have friends. They've all run away from you"). She refers in particular to Émile Bernard, Volpini and Filiger, two months before Gauguin's departure for Tahiti. Émile Schuffenecker (1851-1934) was one of Gauguin's oldest and most loyal friends. It was at the Bertin stockbroker's, where Schuffenecker was employed as a broker, that they met in 1872, the same year that Gauguin was hired there. Schuffenecker, who spent his spare time painting and taking evening drawing classes, probably encouraged Gauguin to follow in his footsteps. Schuffenecker always supported Gauguin in his destitution, and helped him out by advancing him the money for his return from Panama and Martinique (1887). During his absences, he acted as his artistic agent, defending his interests. At the time of the 1889 Universal Exhibition, he was again responsible for finding the short-lived premises of the Café Volpini and enabling Gauguin and his friends to organize their Impressionist and Synthétiste exhibition, in which he took part. Later that year, Gauguin proposed that he and Émile Bernard travel to Madagascar, asking him to sell some land he owned to finance the trip. But Schuffenecker, who was still taking Gauguin in, was annoyed by the way his friend had taken over his apartment and studio, inviting newcomers whom he didn't bother to introduce, and by Gauguin's interest in his wife. On the eve of Gauguin's departure for Tahiti, the two men were practically estranged. This letter, full of bitterness and recrimination, is set against this backdrop. "You say to me: Why are you writing to me instead of giving me a verbal explanation? I reply. Any explanation presupposes discussion, and you know that I've long avoided arguing with you. You can't stand contradiction, it makes you lose your temper and forget yourself, even to the point of the most hurtful insults, as you have done to me on several occasions. Since I've been fighting in painting for the same cause as you, you've never brought a literary scholar or someone who could be useful to me to show him my painting. When you did, it was for you and only you, and even in front of me you never showed or pointed out one of my canvases, confining yourself to replying in a more or less benevolent manner if the visitor mentioned it to you. You forgot your old comrade in the struggle, your friend from the bad old days, the first to support you and believe in you, and you inflicted on him the humiliation [of pushing] a young man who certainly has talent to pass in front of him, refining the insult with the fact that this young man had entered our struggle under the influence of Roy, who was my pupil and had stayed with me before he met you. Well, Gauguin, you can be happy, you've gone straight to the heart and to the bottom. Barré [After that, you must understand that it's useless to talk about our friendship. You may have admirers for your talent, but you'll never have friends. They've all run away from you. Friendship presupposes sympathy, walking together in sympathy and at least apparent equality. It's not friends with you you want, it's friends without you. That will never be my role with anyone]. I'm sorry I had to tell you this, but it was necessary for my own relief and the truth. After that, Gauguin, if you wish a verbal explanation, which seems quite natural to me, I promise you that you will be well received at home, but I make one absolute condition, and that is that you will refrain from any outburst or hurtful word, this commitment is mutual. Now, don't you see in my letters anything resembling a dismissal, as you call it. I understand that you have worries at the moment, and if you need to show your paintings you will be well received. I don't want to do you any harm or trouble, you have every latitude and freedom, but it was necessary for you to know what I think. Men should be frank with each other.