BELLMER (Hans). Autograph letter signed to a... Lot 20

BELLMER (Hans). Autograph letter signed to a lady. S.l., September 9, 1949. 1 p. 3/4 in-8. "I am confused to want to address to you by this word a true S.O.S. call! PAUL ELUARD, ENCOUNTERING THE EXTREME MISERY IN WHICH I LIVE, had asked me, before his departure, to phone him. - If I understood him correctly, he implied that YOU MIGHT BE LIKELY TO PAY FOR SOME OR ALL OF THE REMAINDER OF YOUR PORTRAIT (WHICH, unfortunately, IS NOT YET COMPLETE). I may have misunderstood. My permanent anguish took this morning a particularly concrete form: I have just received a summons from the police, following a complaint (by my ex-wife) for abandonment of family: in spite of desperate efforts, it was impossible for me to find the 4000 frs of alimony for August. If I don't manage to pay this sum immediately, I'll go to court and to prison. Nothing authorizes me to address you this call for help. But I don't see any possibility of hope! If it were practically possible for you to give me 4 or 5,000 francs - to warn me by pneumatic means that I should come and take it from you - I would be breathing like a nearly strangled man. Forgive me this word: accept, dear Madam, my respectful regards... "