DELACROIX Eugène (1798-1863). Lot n° 54

2 L.A.S. "Eug. Delacroix", 1843, to his brother General Baron Charles-Henri DELACROIX in Bordeaux; 2 and a half pages in-4 and 2 pages in-8, addresses. Beautiful letters to his brother. 23 January 1843. He worries about his brother during the "awful floods in Bordeaux. [...] Ask me nevertheless as soon as possible about your news and if you had to suffer in so many disasters [...] I have so far resisted to the winter which in truth is not very severe and I have been able to get back to the work that my health had forced me to interrupt so long last year. If the cold weather arrives, at least we will not have to suffer for very long, since the season is beginning to advance. My health is not too much for me to make up for all the backlog of my work, which is really considerable and would become beyond my strength. [...] I told you about the bronze portraits of our good father and mother. They have had all the problems possible, firstly to be cast, which is a delicate operation, and secondly for the trifle of making the frames which had to be redone and which had been done all wrong because they are circular. I hope that I will soon be able to repair this delay. I think you'll be happy with their resemblance. It is as good as sculpture perhaps and I am delighted to have saved them in this way, for I had only a plaster proof of the one and the other, subject to accidents. He does not know when he will be able to go and see his brother, "if I can do so without stopping my whole shop, for I do not work alone and people make a lot of nonsense of me when I am not there. It would be a very delightful moment for me to be able to embrace you"... 29 December 1843. He thanks him for sending a case of white wine: "You spoil me and on top of that I may be a long time without enjoying it. For two months I have been taken back by my throat inflammation and I lead the life of a cenobite. I spend my evenings alone by the fire because I am forbidden to talk and I am forced to be very sober in all respects. But at last I hope that I will get rid of it and that I and my friends will find a way to honour your letter. [...] The very short moments I spent with you in Vichy are always present in my memory and come back to me very often"... Intimate letters (LIII, p. 203, and LIV, p. 206).