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LONG AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM THE ARTIST TO A COLLECTORRichard, dated 11 March 1951:

"My dear Richard, I'm late again! First of all: thank you for the recent mandate which came to save me from one of my perpetual troubles! But we haven't yet worked out the quid pro quo for that. It would be preferable for you to choose on the spot, yourself (given that you will soon have a real collection, we could think of one of the large photos of the doll that survived the war etc.). Yesterday I posted the gouache and the two copies of the album to the address indicated. I was so rushed and upset that I didn't even have time to make a passe-partout for the gouache so that I could present it to you a bit more properly. What's more, I would have liked to add one of the recent lithographs. But they are printed on wide margins and I didn't know how to attach this very large sheet to the package. I'll send you one when I have a cardboard roll. I still haven't heard from the framer (Martin). I'm going to phone him tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm still struggling with the daily terrors. As luck would have it, I've sold a litho here and there (the very first one you own) and I had a few proofs left over. But it's all just a way of barely surviving. Joé Bousquet once had the following idea: We would have to find ten or so collector-friends, each of whom would pay me 5,000 francs a month for 6 to 8 months and would be entitled to a medium-format painting of his choice. But how to organise this? The unfortunate thing is that this album of lithographs - a terrible piece of work - gives me absolutely nothing to live on while it's being made. Another thing remains in a drawer of my worries: it's the Anatomy of the physical unconscious - or the Anatomy of the image! It would take me three months of peace to finish it (text and drawings), in other words, a miracle. Although it has no material value for me, the publication of this book would be of the utmost importance in terms of my existence. Did I tell you that de Caso has begun to extract from some of my correspondence things of poetic-objective interest? We'll see what happens. And if others would like to do the same. Write to me! Will your friend be coming to see me in Paris? Do you have a proof of the litho: "L'homme qui se dépouille de l'image d'une femme"? Best regards.
Hans Bellmer."