"On va jouer Tristane avec les marionnettes."

Autograph letter signed by Judith Gautier addressed to Céleste Chrétien, her maid; four pages written in black ink on a double sheet.
This letter mentions the visit of Francis, a carpenter by profession and Céleste Chrétien's husband, to Paris: "Does Francis still want to come and spend a few days in Paris? Can he do so without harming his work? They are going to perform Tristane with marionettes. I would like to have him to help me and I think it would amuse him. I would send him a first-class railway pass, he would sleep and eat at my place so as not to incur any expenses. The performance takes place Saturday the 23rd at 4 o'clock; and there will be a dress rehearsal, the day before or two days before." It was in 1910 that Judith Gautier published in La Revue de Paris a triptych in verse entitled Tristane which she had performed in her Little marionette theatre, inaugurated in May 1897 at 4 rue Charras in Paris. This theatre, which contained about a hundred seats, was quickly allocated a subsidy by the Ministry of Fine Arts.