DLA024-0211  Transcription

11, Western Esplanade,

Hove, Sussex.

14th October, 1936.

My very dear friend,

I am sure you will forgive me for being so long in replying to your most delightful letter.^[1] I still have to be very careful not to overstrain myself and have to deal with my correspondence gradually.

I read your most sympathetic letter with great satisfaction and it warmed my heart to learn from it how much interest my many friends are taking in my convalescence, and above all, you, dear friend I wish to thank you for your great sympathy which I very highly esteem in my enforced rest.

Meanwhile, I have received the book from Dr. Siklossy.^[2] The Hungarian translation of my work gives me very great pleasure in deed [sic]. It is does [sic] with so much taste and care, especially the short history of my career and the splendid reproductions of two of my early pictures [11229][11601],^[3] which have not, so far as I know, ever been published before. These two pictures, and especially the one of the Hungarian Peasant and the little girl, take me back to the days when I spent a vacation in the Bácská when I came home from my studies abroad. How I loved it, living amongst the peasants, these noble and proud beings, and how I long to spend some time amongst them again. I hope they have not lost any of their beautiful spirit in the passage of time. Let me thank you again from the depths of

[Page 2]

my heart for this generous idea of yours – to have the book translated and so well presented that in my native country it will exist in my native language and that it will be preserved in libraries and amongst cherished friends as a record of my work.

Our dear friend Dr. Siklossy also sent me two hundred pages for signature and I will now try to do a certain number daily so as to be able to return them to him by the end of the month.

Naturally at the moment I cannot make any definite plans but we contemplate, and indeed it is the advice of the doctor that I should not remain in England during the wet and foggy days, and we intend to go to the South of France about the end of the year. We may also spend three weeks in Portugal where we have delightful invitations. Therefore it is difficult for me now to be definite as regards the time when I will be able to fulfil my long outstanding promise to paint the portrait but I should think it would probably be possible for me to do so on our way home during the month of March. I am sure that you will understand and will have further patience with me. Please give this message of mine to Herczeg Ferenc and to the Secretary of State Preszli [sic].^[4] You mentioned in your last letter that Prince Esterhazy may also be amongst my sitters then.^[5] It would be delightful to paint that great Hungarian seigneur

[Page 3]

in his national costume and with the beautiful ancient jewellery which that very sympathetic and cultivated man showed us when we had the pleasure of being his guests at his Buda palace, when I was painting the portrait of the Regent.^[6]

We were staying in the country until a few days ago when we came down here to the sea as the doctors thought that the bracing air would enable me to recuperate sooner. We have found a charming house and we are living a quiet and retired life. It is this which I need and I have time now to read and to dictate for a few hours now and again.. The sea air has always been helpful to me and I hope that during the first few days of November I will be able to return to London when I am much looking forward to taking up my palette again.

I have been following the news of the last few days with great interest and read with sorrow of the death of that able man, Goembos.^[7] During our last sojourn in Hungary we were his guests and were both much impressed by his personality. He certainly was a great patriot and the Regent must feel the loss of a great collaborator, especially just now when Europe seems to have lost its equilibrium. Let us hope that these struggles will mean that in the near future it will be found possible to take such measures as will ensure justice and peace to Europe.

[Page 4]

Let me, before I close, thank you for the cuttings from the Pesti Hírlap and forgive me for sending you a dictated letter in English I shall be glad to hear from you soon.

My wife^[8] joins me in heartiest greetings, and I am ever yours,

In most affectionate friendship

Dr. Legrady Otto.

Editorial Note:

Doctor Ottó Légrády (1878–1948), editor-in-chief of the Pesti Hírlap newspaper from 1919 to 1944.

SMDL

22/03/2019