[Ernest HEBERT, painter] - Oleg TRIPET SKRYPITZINE (1848-193 - Lot 166

[Ernest HEBERT, painter] - Oleg TRIPET SKRYPITZINE (1848-1935, painter, curator and patron of the Musée Fragonard in Grasse) / Set of correspondence, photographs and notes kept by Oleg TS concerning the portrait painted by the painter Ernest Hébert of his wife Esméralda (née Alexandrine Hélène Basily, whom he had married in 1879), a portrait all the more precious in that it was unfinished at the time of his sudden death in August 1882: 1°) Gabrielle HEBERT (née Uckermann, 1853-1934, photographer, wife of the painter Hébert) wrote to Esmeralda on July 24, 1882: her husband had received her letter, but was distressed by the sudden death of Madame Marie Caune, whose last moments she recounted (sudden heart disease), "my husband did a great drawing after Marie, who was dead as beautiful as alive, looking as if she were asleep, all covered in flowers!, She left her villa and her portrait to her father." They hid her death from her mother-in-law, and she remains with her, without going to the studio; "2°) La Baronne Double (salonnière, née Marie Biart, 1840-1897, literary pseudonym Etincelle), in a letter dated July 30, 1882 to Esméralda, who was in Vichy, spoke of the encounters she could make there, in particular Monsieur de Montbel, who "would have aroused a mad passion in Sarah Bernhardt, and she would come to his home to throw him back into the fire-until the day she fell into the arms of her mother!"She herself is in Plombière and talks about the Rothschilds; she asks if she has any details about the death of Madame Caune (Hébert's friend and model) and says, "Is your portrait like hers?"(Oleg points out that Madame Caune was the daughter of his friend Dr. Robody from Marseille), the Baroness continues with her small talk - 3°) Baroness Double, in a letter to Oleg dated September 8, 1882, tries to ease Oleg's grief at the loss of his wife on August 12, She gossips about certain facts, which Oleg clarifies in notes (the suicide in Marseille of Valentine A, whose portrait Hebert had painted) - 4°) On September 29, Baroness Double asks her friend Oleg about his health and evokes the missing woman, "How painful these visits to Hebert must have been for you! I understand that you can't influence this great artist, but it's a pity that he didn't finish his work. Only he could give life back to her whom death has taken from us" (Oleg specifies that he was in Paris to attend the sessions for the completion of Esmée's portrait and gives details - 5°) Oleg keeps 2 original photographs of Esméralda, under the one by Brion, he specifies "of all the photos of Esmée, Hébert had it in his hands and was inspired by it" - 6°) At the end of 1882, we understand that the portrait is finished and that Oleg is eager to have it admired. He has kept 2 cards from the Duchesse de Luynes and 2 others from Valentine Autran on this subject - 7°) Attached to this set: a large photograph of the house in Vichy where Esmeralda died and an engraved portrait of Hébert published in "L'Artiste".