Eugène BOUDIN. L.A.S., Paris December 29, 1896-January 6, 1897, to Mme MARTIN; 4pages in-8. He sends her his best wishes, evoking "old comrades and friends from the younger days [...] who have gone to wait for us over there. Dear Martin once told me that he was beginning to feel lonely as an intruder in his home town... I'm beginning to feel the same loneliness in life". He is "sustained by success... by the small gloriole of appreciated work"... He had some setbacks on his summer trip: "I was planning to spend a few days in Le Havre on my way back from Dieppe, but bad weather prevented me from doing so. Leaving Dieppe to escape the storm, we found ourselves in the middle of it in Le Havre"... On January 6, he continues: "Oh, how I'd love to get away from all the hassles of my job, with all its never-ending obligations... and this work that takes me by day and barely gives me time to breathe... In truth, it's too much for an old man my age. And to think that we're forbidden to think of retirement or rest... that here I am, condemned to forced labor in perpetuity, and that in this rage to do honor to one's name and not let one's star fade, one must of necessity hold one's brush firm... One is not allowed to grow old in our profession"...