Lettre autographe signée adressée à Igor Markevitch

Autograph letter signed by Jean Cocteau addressed to Igor Markevitch. One page written in blue ballpoint pen and signed "Ton Jean".
Some folds inherent to placing in envelope and a staple in the upper left margin.
Fine and long letter in which Jean Cocteau defends his friend the Ukrainian conductor and composer Igor Markevitch, victim of critic Antoine Goléa's wrath.
"Je suis stupéfait par ce qu'on me rapporte de Goléa." ["I am stunned by what I am told about Goléa."] We have not been able to find the slightest trace of an article by Goléa about Markevitch, but the University of Caen holds a file entitled "Affaire entre Igor Markevitch et Antoine Goléa" ["Case between Igor Markevitch and Antoine Goléa"] dated from the year of our letter. It appears indeed, according to these archives, that a trial did take place and that the appeal was requested by Goléa in October 1955; Cocteau comments on this subject: "J'ai toujours été la victime de ces étranges procès qu'on gagne en appel - mais bien à la longue - et parfois après sa mort." ["I have always been the victim of these strange trials that one wins on appeal - but only in the long run - and sometimes after one's death."]
Jean Cocteau, whose handwriting appears tormented here, seems in any case to have been very affected by this affair and praises his friend's talent: "Ta prodigieuse maîtrise et le sacrifice que tu as fait de ton œuvre au service de celles des autres. [...] il est incompréhensible qu'un esprit de sa culture ne reconnaisse pas, entre autres, que personne au monde ne conduit ce Sacre comme toi." ["Your prodigious mastery and the sacrifice you have made of your work in service to those of others. [...] it is incomprehensible that a mind of his culture does not recognize, among other things, that no one in the world conducts this Rite like you."] More than a letter of support, this document is a true plea in favor of artists' creative freedom and a condemnation of cultural mercantilism: "Mais a-t-il pensé que nos œuvres dès qu'elles passent par un éditeur, une salle de concert, une salle d'exposition, deviennent des produits ? [...] Hélas, nos professions ne comportent pas de « diplômes » et nous courons le risque de professions libres. Notre seule chance est que le public se trouve rarement d'accord avec ses juges." ["But has he thought that our works, as soon as they pass through a publisher, a concert hall, an exhibition hall, become products? [...] Alas, our professions do not include 'diplomas' and we run the risk of liberal professions. Our only chance is that the public is rarely in agreement with its judges."] At this time cultural professions were indeed quite poorly regulated and it would not be until 1959 and the creation of the Ministry for Art and Culture by De Gaulle and Malraux that things would evolve. Cocteau finally deplores that criticism guides the choice of "consumers": "Déconseiller ces « produits » revient à leur causer le plus grand dommage." ["To advise against these 'products' amounts to causing them the greatest damage."]