Eugène DELACROIX (1798-1863). L.A. and L.A.S. "ED", [1851-1858], to Joséphine de FORGET; 2pages in-8 on blue paper with address, and 1page in-8. Tender letters to his friend Joséphine de Forget. [June 15, 1851]. "Good dear friend, thank you very much. I was going to write to you in reply to your little note yesterday. I did wisely not to dine yesterday and I shall do the same or nearly the same today. I'll just go to the Louvre and hardly do any work there. I have such a dreadful fear of being ill now, when I have only a few small efforts left to make to reap the fruit of all the others, that I'm going to study myself to go only very slowly. You understand as well as I do the immense interest I have in this prudent conduct. [...] So be good enough to come and go without relying on me; I'll try to see you after dinner today [...] I had a few temporary shivers yesterday, which fortunately didn't show. I'm a little weaker, that's all. I'm reading your Constitutionals [...] The printing is very good and I like the paper. [...] I'm at a very important moment, which doesn't prevent me from feeling and telling you how much I thank and love you. [Delacroix was finishing his Apollo Conqueror of the Serpent Python on the ceiling of the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre]. This Saturday [December 1858]. "Dear friend, you are very kind. My cold calms down and then it comes back. I went out last night to walk a couple of steps from home and it didn't work for me so I'm not thinking of flying away. Gout, rheumatism &c. are paying me little visits. You must admit that I've done well to get used to my home. The company of others amuses me, but it always tires me, I mean in the situation I'm in. I work a little, I read a little. I've given up going to a few places where it was perhaps necessary for me to go. But one of the blessings that providence has kindly granted me is that, in a situation of mediocre fortune and zero ambition, I am not forced to make any representations whatsoever. I send you a thousand and one heartfelt regards, good friend, as I await the pleasure of telling you this without coughing or spitting". Correspondance générale, t. III, p. 70-71; and t. IV, p. 5-6. Attached is a L.A.S. from Joséphine de Forget to Eugène Delacroix, this Monday evening [August 6, 1839] (1p. in-8, address with wax seal). "We shall go tomorrow Tuesday to the French, there will be a pretty show, of which your friend, will pay the expenses. You will join us early, and I hope we can spend our dinner close together. How happy I was last night, my poor friend! My heart is full of this happiness, which I prefer to all the pleasures of the world. A thousand and one tendernesses [...] Joséphine".