Émile-Antoine BOURDELLE. L.A.S., Paris April 14, 1920, to Anatole France; 4 pages small in-4. Reflections on Dalou and Rodin, and his own bust of Anatole France. "Seeing at the Salon de la Société Nationale busts by Dalou - busts by Rodin", he sent in at the last moment the bust of the "Master" without it being able to appear in the catalog. "But this is the crux of the matter. Dalou's virtuosism, his ties and fabrics and false collars still warm from the iron - his curls - his hairdresser's grins - his scruffy heads with smooth, licked wandering masses - were a little too much for my patience! [...] The more acute virtuosity - too acute - and not enough - of Rodin's heads - rich indeed in the appearances of human substance - but substance too much on display [...] the total oblivion of the communication of this block of head and body with the laws of space and the laws of light [...] All this pushed me to bring this effigy of the Master of French Letters". The critics, abandoning "the two great figures (La Force de la volonté and La Victoire) and Mickiewicz's monumental head - everyone rushed to see your bust... They studied it closely - then gradually moved away and concluded that it was more intimate - and more whole - and more homogeneous. [...] I'm tired of seeing the Jean-Paul-Laurens with his beard and soap-like hair - the Geffroy knocked out, eyes poached and drooling. The electric Dalou with curly hair and beard by beard [...] This is old rags old clothes that have no eternity. Perhaps, Maître, it's the fault of the models - and that by hearing Jérôme Coignard and Mr Bergerat I copied a denser and better held truth". He couldn't resist "all those busts of oppressive virtuosity. I couldn't wait for the dignity of the marble and the mantle that I want to see put on the venerated image of the author of so much written beauty. I'm sorry to say that the bleating and beatitudes of the crowd of Beotians have aroused me. I couldn't find a more beautiful flag to throw into the fray"...