Lettre autographe signée adressée à Henriette Gomès

Signed autograph letter from Balthus addressed to gallerist Henriette (Gomès). One page written in black ink on letterhead of the Académie de France in Rome of which Balthus was appointed director by André Malraux in 1961, 13 lines.
Transverse folds inherent to mailing, two small tears in left and right margins of the letter not touching the text, pin marks in upper left margin of the letter, the ink of certain words having faded.
"Ma petite Henriette,
imossible de me souvenir de l'adresse de Claude Hersent ni de celle de Lefebvre dont je ne trouve plus l'enveloppe. C'est donc à toi que j'envoie le papier ci-joint à remettre au personnage en question. - Quant aux dégats subis par mon tableau, une fois la toile montée, il n'y parait plus. Donc inutile de se lancer dans des correspondances à n'en plus finir. Je t'embrasse. B." ["My dear little Henriette, / impossible to remember Claude Hersent's address or that of Lefebvre whose envelope I can no longer find. So it's to you that I'm sending the enclosed paper to give to the person in question. - As for the damage suffered by my painting, once the canvas is mounted, it no longer shows. So no need to launch into endless correspondence. I embrace you. B."]
"During the summer of 1952, Balthus found a château in the Nièvre, between Autun and Avallon which he decided to rent and where he settled in the spring of the following year. The means were provided by his dealers, Henriette Gomès, Pierre Matisse and with them a group of collectors, including Maurice Rheims, Alix de Rothschild and Claude Hersent. They paid him a pension in exchange for his latest paintings which they divided among themselves. The château was severely deteriorated and Balthus lived there modestly in continual restoration work. He had for company, to help him settle in and ensure a presence when he went to Paris, the poet Léna Leclercq, met through Giacometti. She remained until spring 1955. Meanwhile, Balthus had begun a love affair with his niece by marriage, Frédérique Tison, daughter of a previous union of his brother Pierre's wife." (Fondation Balthus)