Signed autograph letter from August Rodin to poet (and Manet's model for "La Dame aux éventails") Nina de Villard

A FASCINATING SIGNED UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917), one of the greatest of all sculptors and at the height of his career, TO ASPIRING POET (and Manet's model) NINA DE VILLARD (pen name of Anne-Marie Gaillard, 1843-1884). About 65 words, neatly written in brown ink on the recto of the first leaf of a folded bifolium of fine laid writing paper (15.5 x 21 cm). Gaillard had sent Rodin a draft of "Feuillets parisiens", presumably in 1883 or early 1884, without mentioning that she, under another name, was the author. Rodin thanks her for the poems, and mentions that he already has "her portrait by Cross [sic], from which he has acquired "un aperçu de l'âme de cette artiste si musicienne aussi." He means not Cross but Henri Cros, her lover Charles Cros' brother, whose statue of Gaillard (1869) was then owned by Rodin, and is with the rest of his collection in the Musée Rodin to this day. Rodin concludes that he will get back to her once he has read the poems. The collection was published in 1885, the year after Gaillard's death. Gaillard was very much in the center of Parisian salon culture--Manet's portrait of her, "La Dame aux éventails" (1873), is a masterpiece. In excellent condition. Unique and fascinating.