ALS in French, two pages on two adjoining sheets, Giverny par Vernon letterhead, January 17, 1921. Handwritten letter in pencil from Claude Monet to M. Louis Aubourg, the innkeeper of the Hotellerie des vieux Plats, in part (translated): “I have received your letter and what it contained. The terrine was absolutely delicious and everybody at home enjoyed it very much. You are a very gifted cook and can only thank you although you owe me this…Let me tell you good things come to those who wait.” The reverse of the second page bears a ‘Hostellerie des Vieux Plats’ stamp. In very good to fine condition, with light soiling and scattered foxing. This letter is featured on page 64 of the book L’Hostellerie des Vieux Plats by Lucette Aubourg, a copy of which is included. The book, which is inscribed by Aubourg, contains anecdotes and images of guestbook drawings made by many of the celebrities who visited the hotel, a group that includes Guy de Maupassant, Victor Hugo, Richard Wagner, Jules Massenet, Andre Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, and many others.
The Aubourg Inn, also known as the Vieux Plats Inn, was located in Gonneville-la-Mallet a few kilometers from Etretat, Upper Normandy. It came to be when the artist and collector Edmond Aubourg bought an old ‘hostellerie’ that he decorated with old earthenware and renamed the Auberge des Vieux Plats. A tradition of the hotel was that visiting artists, in place of monetary payment, were given the alternative of leaving a work of original art. Claude Monet, an occasional visitor of the hotel, painted two views of Etretat and presented them to the Aubourgs to decorate the walls of the inn’s dining room; one of these paintings was sold in an estate sale in 1935 and today resides in the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Accompanied by a letter draft from M. Louis Aubourg to Claude Monet, penned on an old invoice sheet (“Mr. Claude Monnet [sic], Faithfull to my promise, I have given, today, at the railway, a small terrine of my own preparation that you will receive in good condition I hope”), and a letter of condolence from Blanche Hoshede, the daughter-in-law of Monet, which was sent to Aubourg’s widow on July 26, 1924: “My father-in-law instructs me to tell you that he was very sad to know the death of your husband and wants me to pass on his deepest condolences with mine also. I have a good memory of my time at Gonneville, unfortunately, we will not be able to answer your good invitation because M. Monet no longer wants to leave Giverny, although he is well. Both send you best memories with still all our regrets for the misfortune that strikes you.”
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