Émile-Antoine BOURDELLE. L.A.S., Paris, December 25, 1919, to his "dear Master of French Letters". Anatole France; 2 pages in-4. Bourdelle is reluctant to accept an offer from the Gobelins. He needs A. France's advice, and also that of Couchoud. "The Manufacture d'Etat des Gobelins, in the person of its Director Gustave Geffroy, would like to entrust me with the mission of training and directing Tapestry students [...]. [...] But in addition to the fact that my name, naked and a little ill-populated, would be a very poor substitute for - would fit very poorly with - that of Ulysse-Napoléon Maillard - the last Master; I'm appalled by any golden - official - link! I want to be free, to devote myself entirely to the sculptor's work. - So I need the assurance of an art-minded man such as yourself that I believe that the work to be done at Les Gobelins is worth the fight, and that I can find in my willingness to serve as a guide to apprentices the living weapon of Art that I hope to hold on to until my last breath. This faith alone can make me willing to take on the task". Geffroy asked him to come only once a week, which would enable him to see the upholsterers at the Gobelins and the sculptors at the Grande Chaumière in the same morning. "Paul Léon and Geffroy agree that I am the worker who can train others and be useful to the Gobelins. Geffroy is ready "to have some large cartoons from my Centaurs executed in Tapestry"...