Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Autograph letter signed (‘Claude Monet’) to an unnamed correspondent, Giverny, 18 May 1900
In French. 2½ pages, 210 x 133mm, bifolium, on mourning writing paper bearing Monet’s Giverny letterhead. Provenance: Christie's, 6 December 1989, lot 346.

To a correspondent who has asked him to sign and retouch an old sketch. Monet expresses his willingness to sign a painting, ‘if it is worth it, but if it is only a sketch … the initials are more than sufficient’; he needs to check the painting, and suggests that his correspondent leave it with his dealer, Durand-Ruel. As for finishing the painting off, it’s impossible, not least because the effect of the passage of time on the colours: ‘I have sometimes agreed to do it to be pleasant, but I have decided to refuse completely for the future’; his correspondent should therefore keep the canvas as it is.