COQUART, Ernest (1831-1902), painter and... - Lot 27 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay

Lot 27
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COQUART, Ernest (1831-1902), painter and... - Lot 27 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay
COQUART, Ernest (1831-1902), painter and architect. 4 L.A.S. (including 1 illustrated) to the painter Jules-Elie DELAUNAY. Naples], Athens and Rome, 1860-1863. 15 pp. in-8. Fascinating correspondence written while he was a resident of the Académie de France in Rome. From Margelina [Naples], letter illustrated with a small pen-and-ink drawing (riders on a background of Vesuvius) to Delaunay who remained in Rome: he recalls his stay in Naples with his travel companion announcing his departure for Pompeii and his renunciation of Sicily. "In a month and a few days, we have to be in Rome. The dispatch, the subject of which we do not know, demands that we be there. I intended to work in Pompeii for this purpose []. I like Rome better, and I take advantage of the freedom of work we have in the churches to make despicable sketches. Thierry (?) is doing the same as me. It's sad, I will have to come back to Naples once again. I don't do paintings. The baths eat me up all my time []". He asks him for a commission and sends him a kiss on the mouth, and signs "Ernest Coquart au magnifique sphincter" (on the address sheet two little sketches and a heart). From Athens, he sends a long letter of 6 pages; he cannot get used to the idea of their separation and envisages other journeys together, to Constantinople and Sicily. "Sicily! The little I have seen of it has turned my head! ". "To put a little heart in your stomach, I will tell you all about our journey and my misadventures"; then begins a long account of the journey in the company of the various other boarders of the Academy, passing through Naples, Messina, Athens, the Acropolis where "we came down from there dumbfounded". From Rome, in a "confidential" letter, he made a long criticism of the "deplorable exhibition" of the Academy's residents; only the painter Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905) found a little grace in his eyes: "I think it is very good for what it is, a study, because at least it is painting". A final lett