[Marie DUPLESSIS] Vincent VIDAL (1812-1887, portraitist, not - Lot 207

[Marie DUPLESSIS] Vincent VIDAL (1812-1887, portraitist, notably of Empress Eugénie) / Autograph letter signed, 2 p in-8, December 17, 1853: He assures his correspondent that he never painted a portrait of Maris Duplessis (the famous courtesan immortalized by Dumas Fils, who died of phthisis at the age of 23), "I did a fantasy that resembled her, and quite by chance, as I never saw her - this fantasy was found in her home when she died, I don't know how, hence the opinion that I had painted her portrait", "This fantasy was published by Jannin under the title "L'Amour de Soi-même", and Jannin ceded his collection to Bulot, I believe, so it's at Bulot's that you'll find the lithograph" (this is the lithographic publisher Henri Jannin), "This is the twentieth time I've been asked for a portrait of this famous rascal" (NB: It was Dumas Fils, in his "Dame aux Camélias", who evoked a portrait of his heroine by Vidal, claiming that he was "the only man whose pencil appears to reproduce her", and in a letter sold at Pierre Bergé's in 2017, Dumas Fils speaks of this famous portrait, saying that Vidal had reproached him for this invention)