LÉGER (Fernand).

Autograph letter signed to Léonce Rosenberg, dated Saturday, March 16 [19]18 - Hospital VL 40 Villepinte (S. and O.), 7 pages and a half in-12 (173 x 130 mm), in modern blue half-maroquin folder. I intend to make very complete paintings but in my own way which will never be that of others. Léger outlines the contract that he proposes to his dealer. As the painter specifies in his postscript, it is a letter without equivocation and clear. In disagreement with his dealer, Léger defends his work and his interests with a formidable firmness. He replies to Rosenberg's reproaches by submitting a real contract to him, which he transcribes in minute detail on the last pages of his letter. Your letter n° 20.252 reaches me here where I am for an indefinite time awaiting my reform. I am worse off than I thought and it seems that I can only be sent home in certain physical conditions. I am therefore waiting patiently and as they refuse any permission to go to Paris I regret that I cannot go to see you and am obliged to write to you. What determined my last letter [...] is not only your penultimate letter, no, it is the impression I had that you had committed yourself too quickly with me (request for a price reduction, objections on invoices, stop on overproduction) (you have 9 paintings from me in 4 months) all this made me believe in a precipitation on your part... You understand that I am by no means the man who wants to make you swallow his painting by surprise [...] don't forget that my evolution, whatever it may be, will always go towards a strong and non-decorative trend. I intend to make very complete paintings but in my own way which will never be that of others. I am not unaware, as I have written to you, of the commercial necessities we have agreed upon [...] It is of common interest. All that has been agreed between us in this respect both in writing and verbally. I do not move a word or a line [...] I consider our present agreements as exactly the same as those of a complete treaty and I act in the same way, that is to say, by avoiding to disperse in an awkward way the few Works that you leave at my disposal. I think I am quite clear - at least I try to be [...]. He thinks that, in the present state of things, the best thing is to fix on paper our conventions which I envisage as follows and which I propose to you. On the following pages, Léger establishes the basis of his future collaboration with the dealer. Rosenberg will have a first right of purchase on all his artistic production for the duration of the war; he will also have a firm and complete three-year treaty on all production during or after the war. The dealer also undertakes to exhibit recent paintings in his gallery, to organize at least one annual exhibition abroad [...] and to hold a general and complete exhibition of all of Mr. Léger's works since 1896 [...] within three years. The painter reserves an absolute right to illustrate literary and poetic works, etc. Here it is, he concludes, and I undertake to sign this on stamped paper tomorrow if you wish. In a postscript (signed with his initials), he asks for a quick answer, and adds: I am organizing myself here to be able to paint - the Chief Physician being a charming man. I think I can. A fascinating letter from Léger to his dealer, rare from this period. Correspondances, Fernand Léger, Léonce Rosenberg, Correspondance 1917-1937, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996, p. 27?