Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)
Autograph letter signed (‘L. Cherubini’) to [Jean-Baptiste-Roger Fauchon] D’Henneville, Montlignon, 26 September [1835]
In French. One page, 183 x 120mm, bifolium with integral address leaf. With a facsimile pencil portrait of Cherubini. Provenance: Johannes Brahms (loose bookplate reading ‘Aus dem Nachlasse Johannes Brahms | no. 384 | Die Erbenvertretung Hamburg – Wien’ and wrapper inscribed ‘Cherubini’, perhaps in Brahms’ hand); Sotheby’s, 12 May 1981, lot 81.

Cherubini discusses the upcoming funeral of Vincenzo Bellini, ‘Ce compositeur à quel j’étais véritablement attaché’. Cherubini instructs D’Henneville, then ‘chef du matériel’ at the Paris Conservatory, to put the Conservatory’s resources at the disposal of the commission in charge of organising Bellini’s funeral.

Vincenzo Bellini died on 23 September 1835. His funeral took place on 2 October, with Cherubini acting as one of the pall-bearers.