Autograph letter dated from Liane de Pougy to the French archaeologist, curator of the Musée de Saint-Germain and professor of art history at the École du Louvre, Salomon Reinach, 56 lines written in blue ink on one double-sided sheet, written from her property at Clos-Marie in Roscoff where the famous courtesan stayed until 1926.
A small tear in the right-hand margin of the letter, inherent in the enveloping of the missive; another slight tear at the foot, without affecting the text.
Liane de Pougy marvels at the youthful vigor of Reinach, who had just turned 65: ' Many happy returns for your 65 years, which find you so young, so fresh, so green, with such playful (studious) feelings. My friend, your youthful morals hold the secret of your physical youth—as Rosa Josepha said, one sustains the other, one preserves the other—and this, seen head-on. ', while magnifying his radiant intelligence: 'To no longer produce, but to sit atop the high throne of your trophies, formed by all you have wrested from instinct to sacrifice to intellectuality. Why do people always say a well of knowledge instead of a luminous column, a sky, a sun, a star, etc.—in short, something that makes us lift our heads?'
She is waiting for her friend and former lover, the terrible and unfaithful Natalie Clifford-Barney: 'Natalie plans to come to Clos at the end of September. She has a wound to heal here—time, fortunately, has already done part of the work! I have sensitive feelings and, like a musketeer, a good heart but a bad temper. This is the 1st time the amazon has truly aimed at me... Let us speak of it no more'. Liane firmly expresses her wish not to be pitied or consoled for her romantic troubles: 'I have suffered in silence but without resignation. Do not speak of this to Nathanaël... Nathanaël means Philippe, Max Jacob claims, who lives and works near us in the most fascinating way... '.
A beautiful letter by the celebrated courtesan, actress, and writer Liane de Pougy, recounting with restrained candor her romantic disappointments with Natalie Clifford-Barney.