Lettre autographe signée au père Martin, marchand de tableaux des Impressionnistes : "J'ai voulu dessiner des boeufs mais je vous assure ces gaillards ne sont pas commodes pour les faire peindre"

Autograph letter signed to the "père Martin", dealer of Impressionist paintings: "I wanted to draw oxen but I assure you that these fellows are not easy to paint".

6 September 1861, 13.4x20.9cm, one sheet of paper.

Autograph letter signed by the painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, to Pierre-Firmin Martin, known as "le père Martin", dealer of Impressionist paintings, having participated in the organisation of the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.
3 pages on a sheet of paper, a lack of paper on the second part of the sheet.
The painter wrote this letter to his merchant friend in 1861, from Parize-le-Châtel, situated about fifteen kilometres south of Nevers. Renowned for its healthy air, the village was one of Jongkind's favourite holiday and study spots.
Jongkind describes his posing sessions in Saint-Parize, which gave rise to magnificent watercolours and oil paintings (La ferme à Saint Parize le Châtel, 1861, coll. part; Saint Parize le Châtel, 1869, Musée du Petit Palais): "[. ...] I wanted to tell you again that I wanted to draw oxen, but I assure you that these fellows are not easy to paint, my ideas are to place them in landscapes that I intend to paint". The painter envisages a stay in a spa town to calm his chronic nervous disorders, and evokes his providential patron, Madame Joséphine Fresser: "I will take the waters with the hope that it will do me good, fortunately I receive a lot of kindness from Madame Fresser, giving me the favour of living more economically".