MONET CLAUDE: (1840-1926) French Impressionist painter. A.L.S., Claude Monet, two pages (separate leaves), 8vo, Giverny par Vernon, Eure, 24th October 1915, to a lady, in French. Monet writes in bold pencil and sends his correspondent a polite letter, stating, in full, ´Je vous prie de bien vouloir excuser pareil retard bien involontaire du à votre lettre égarée et que je retrouve seulement. Agreez Mademoiselle l´expression de mes sentiments distingués´ (Translation: ´Please accept my apologies for this unintentional delay, which was due to your letter being misplaced and only now found. Accept Mademoiselle the expression of my distinguished feelings´). VG

At the time of writing the present letter Monet´s domestic affairs may well have been in something of a state of chaos at Giverny, leading to his correspondent´s letter being misplaced. Having begun work on the huge canvases that would evolve into Les Nymphéas, the famous water-lilies paintings, Monet was having a studio constructed specifically for the series, which he planned to extend. As the artist´s biographer, Daniel Wildenstein, states ´The construction of the new studio was authorised by a decree issued by the sub-prefect on 5 July 1915. The spot that had been chosen was in the north-eastern part of the property between the upper road and the Ruelle de l´Amiscourt. Before work could begin, various dilapidated buildings belonging to a neighbouring property that Monet had recently acquired had to be pulled down. These demolitions formed the first stage of the project, for which the foreman was Maurice Lanctuit of Vernon. Work must have proceeded apace, for by mid-August 1915, the structure of the building was sufficiently advanced for Monet to be disgusted by its ugliness. At the end of September, he was still "held up here by the end of the work on [his studio]". A little less than a month later, before the last touches had been added, he had begun the "definitive move into [the] new studio", where he would "at last be able to judge what [he had been] doing". ´ (from Monet - The Triumph of Impressionism, 2023 edition published by Taschen, p.526).