French art dealer (1895-1989). Typed letter signed ("À bientot j'éspère! Katia Granoff"). Paris. 4to. 1 page on stationery with printed letterhead.
$ 140 / 120 €
(88810/BN58704)
To the wife of the publisher and graphologist Maurice Delamain, asking her friend to provide her with a copy of an anthology published by Delamain that she unfortunately misplaced: "Je voudrais me procurer le tome 1 de l'anthologie que M. Delamain avait fair paraître, soit l'anthologie en un seul volume que j'avais eue mais que j'ai égarée depuis". Since her book, "Anthologie de la Poésie Russe" (1961) was out of print at Gallimard, Granoff was working on a second edition, which she hoped to be bilingual.
She states that Delamain's anthology would be very helpful to her and that without it she would have to perform much research on the original texts of the poets featured in the anthology: "Les textes de cet ouvrage me seraient très utiles et son absence m'obligerait à beaucoup de recherches dans les textes originaux des poètes de cette période". She closes the letter with an invitation to meet at one of her exhibitions. - The Russian-born art dealer and writer Katia Granoff opened her first gallery in Paris in 1926, discovering such artists as Marc Chagall and Othon Friesz. After World War II she opened three new galleries in Honfleur, Cannes, and Paris, and was the first to exhibit Monet's "Water Lilies" in 1955. The Galerie Larock-Granoff in Paris, owned by her nephew's family, still operates today. - Later in life Granoff worked as a writer. Her anthology of Russian poetry was well received and earned her the Prix Georges-Dupau from the French Academy; some of her own poems survive in recordings by Pierre Brasseur and Fernand Ledoux, or sung by Monique Morelli..