DLA017-0127  Translation

HOTEL TIMÈO

TAORMINA

16. January 1930

Dear Fülöp,

I am sending you 12 small sketches in a separate little letter. They were all made at a very quick pace either at sunrise or at sunset. I also have drawings and larger sketches, but they are even worse because my brushes are not big enough and I’m struggling with huge technical difficulties. The paper always dries and the paint stains. I have no specific experience, I can’t follow the method of making a careful drawing first and then one by one put down the different “wash”-es. Even if I want to follow the drawing, most of the time I lose the lines and I cannot see with my eyes the places drawn in advance. I know I should draw more and I will in warm weather but now it’s winter / although the weather is nice here, but still it’s too cold to sit outside / normally I paint from my

[Page 2]

room and there is an immense panorama before my eyes: in the field of vision the huge Mount Etna. I know very well that this is no topic for beginners, but the view that is constantly in front of me from my window is so beautiful that I cannot resist, and as a drunkard for a drink, I keep going for this fairytale panorama. When the morning is clear I get up at 6 and look forward to the sunrise. My friend Rimini the Italian painter is struggling a lot, his wife is ill, he has financial problems, so he can’t help me lately. But I hope that later he will be able to. If there is an occasion, I will send you some work from him, maybe you could propose it to some London dealer. He is too good a painter to make the little souvenir pictures that tourists are seeking here. This market is already occupied by a lot of rubbish “pictors” who sell in hotels. He has to find a market abroad and you

[Page 3]

would do a good service to art if you helped him a little. He draws excellently and paints really well. As far as I am concerned, I know that my work is very thin but I persevere and I hope with patience and constant work I will make a little progress, but of course, I am not young enough to gain deep perfection in drawing skills, if I draw too much, it is tiring for my eyes and [illegible] always bothering me because my hand movements are insecure yet merely because my right shoulder and arm always hurts a little due to a riding accident and [illegible deletion] I have to force myself as in some directions I can not move freely towards with my arm.

Please dear Fülöp be so good occasionally send these little sketches back again and I hope later I can do [illegible] some tolerable little drawings.

In conclusion,

[Page 4]

I just want to add one last thing, if later I try to paint a clean, nice picture after the sketches, I never succeed, it is completely lifeless, so the only thing I could to do is to produce something semi-[illegible] to work directly after nature and the aquarelle technique is so [illegible] that I can’t continue a half-finished sketch another time. Maybe the only thing for me is to finish quick little sketches in one [illegible deletion] sequel.

I am sorry to bore you with these things. Greeting to you my dear friend,

Vilmos

Editorial Note:

Vilmos Ruttkay de Felső-Ruttka (born 1869), commercial attaché at the Hungarian Embassy in London; for biographical notes, see [4856].  

KB (summary)

07/10/2009

&

OHM (translation)

24/03/2021