Guillaume Guillon-Lethières' autograph letter signed

A.L.S. to "M. Chéri peintre" (s.l.) 12 April 1822. 3 pp. in-4. Address and postmarks.

Interesting letter in which he evokes his work and the works presented in the salon "[...] I will give the note of the works that I expose to the salon for my account.  - St Louis in Tunis during the 6th crusade which destroyed his army. [I took the moment when he visits a sick person in his tent. You will tell me your feelings on the means I used to give the scene some interest. I would have two small paintings landscape and figure. [...]" he gives his opinion on different subjects among which the production of his pupil Miss D'Hervilly which he describes as "pretty genre paintings" and "productions of great dispositions which give a lot of hope [...]". He asks his correspondent to encourage her and strongly recommends her. 

This letter, written in the year of the creation of the Oath of the Ancestors, evokes another painting, Saint Louis visiting the victims of the plague in the plain of Carthage(1) which was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1822, n°657.

In the second part of the document, it is Miss Mélanie-Marie d'Hervilly who is honored. He describes her specialty as "genre painter" and expresses his admiration for her work. Melle d'Hervilly lived with the painter since the age of 15, she was considered his pupil and adopted daughter. His will gives Melle d'Hervilly the rights to all his drawn sketches and painted studies.

1 : Painting currently in Abbeville, Boucher de Perthes museum.