Théophile-Alexandre STEINLEN. MASSAÏDA, model... Lot 45

[Théophile-Alexandre STEINLEN]. MASSAÏDA, model and companion of Steinlen. 15 L.A.S. "Massa", Saint-Ay February-October 1919, to Th. Steinlen in Paris; 32 pages in-8, addresses and envelopes (tear to a letter with missing). Touching correspondence addressed to the painter by his black companion. [Massaïda, a young African woman of Bambara origin, served as a model for Steinlen, whose companion she became]. The letters to his "dear Toubabou" or "Lord and Master", in a very approximate spelling, are written from the country house that Steinlen had found in Saint-Ay in the Loiret, during the painter's Parisian absences. Most of the letters deal with domestic worries. A touching letter on March 9 addresses the couple's problems: "I will try not to bore you with my stories any longer, my dear Toubabou, I am bitterly reproaching myself for having hindered not only your work but also your existence. Listen, the best advice I can give you is to separate us without getting angry and you to live in the country to have peace of mind and I would go to live in the lost countries in the sun with the animals where I would find more affection and less contempt "... Fourteen letters addressed to Steinlen, mainly family letters, are enclosed. On the back of a L.A.S. from René Maizeroy, Steinlen has sketched 8 pen-and-ink drawings.