DLA016-0084  Transcription 

WOLMER WOOD,

MARLOW COMMON,

MARLOW, BUCKS.

April 13th 1925

My dear friend

I hope that by now you are feeling quite all right again and that your rest has done you real good. I expect you have got pretty tired of having to behave like an invalid but do take the whole matter as a warning that your health will not stand for ever the very great demands you make upon it – and do remember that there must inevitably be some relation between the state of your health and the quality of your work. No man can

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do his best if he is not feeling up to the mark and as the best years of your working life are still before you, you ought to keep yourself fit to make the best use of them. You know my belief that an artist does not begin to do his finest work till he is over fifty – I want you to prove that this belief of mine is right.

I asked Peter about the Rover; he says that his car is only two cylinders and that it can, therefore, do about fifty miles to the gallon, but that yours, being a four cylinder car would not do much over twenty – and less in London traffic. He thinks, though, that you might get rather better results with a different

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carburettor. The Rover people usually supply a Smith’s carburettor; Peter says he has a Solex, which he considers to be much better and more economical – it is to be got from J.Wolf and Co., 114 (or 117) Southward Street, S.E.1.

The Kendricks^[1] are with us for Easter and I have given Sydney Kendrick your message about the Devonport portrait [4570]. He says he is quite prepared to hurry up the copy [3946] as soon as the original is available and he is going to write to you to ask if he can see the portrait soon so that he can get the canvas ready and have everything prepared ahead of the time when you will want him to start – Then he can set to work directly you are

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ready for him to begin the copy.

I am so sorry that I cannot get to you this week, but if you want me to come next week I am at your disposal and I shall hope to find you completely recovered then.

Always yours

A.L. Baldry

Editorial Note:

Alfred Lys Baldry (1858-1939), British artist and art critic who authored several articles on de László and who was a close family friend; for biographical notes, see [3562].

SMDL

18/12/2017