ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques (1712-1778). Autograph letter signed to Franois-Joseph de Conzi, comte de Charmettes, Mtiers, 13 January 1763, 2 pages, 192 x 145mm , integral address panel, traces of seal (slightly discoloured, seal tear in blank margin of second leaf, affixed by paste to a leaf from an album). A grief-stricken and self-reproachful letter in reply to one from his correspondent dated 31 December, lamenting the death of Madame de Warens, 'la perte de notre commune amie, de cette femme si charmante et toujours si respectable qui prit soin de ma jeunesse et m'a donn les seuls beaux jours que la duret de mon sort m'ait jamais permis de goter'. Dwelling upon his departure from her, and the misfortune that has since pursued him, he romanticises about the idyllic existence that he might instead have enjoyed, 'J'aurois pass des jours sereins dans l'obscurit de sa retraite, je la lui aurois rendue agrable, je lui aurois sauv peut-tre quelques imprudences, je l'aurois soigne dans ses infirmits, j'aurois ferm ses yeux, et je l'aurois suivie'. If his health permits, he will accept Conzi's invitation and they will talk of her. Rousseau entered the household of Franoise-Louise-Eleonore de la Tour, Baronne de Warens, at Annecy in 1728, before his conversion to Catholicism. He was seventeen and Madame de Warens thirteen years older. Their tender mutual affection was to remain in his memory as the greatest happiness of his life. Monsieur de Conzi (1707-1789), of a noble family of Savoy, was a long-standing friend of the Baronne. He befriended Rousseau and allowed him to use his library. In August 1762 it was Conzi who wrote to inform him of her death, and he invited Rousseau to visit him at Les Charmettes. At this time, Emile had recently been condemned and its author banished from France. Rousseau was soon to be forced to leave the canton of Berne and, driven out of Mtiers-Travers, sought refuge with Hume in England. He visited Geneva again in 1768 but by then Conzi, influenced by the Duc de Choiseul, ostracised him. The letter is not in the Correspondance Complte (Geneva, 1965-1998). Provenance . The letter was in the collection of Lady Elizabeth Foster (d. 1824, Duchess of Devonshire from 1809), from whom it has come by descent to the present owner.
ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques (1712-1778). Autograph letter signed to Franois-Joseph de Conzi, comte de Charmettes, Mtiers, 13 January 1763, 2 pages, 192 x 145mm , integral address panel, traces of seal (slightly discoloured, seal tear in blank margin of second leaf, affixed by paste to a leaf from an album). A grief-stricken and self-reproachful letter in reply to one from his correspondent dated 31 December, lamenting the death of Madame de Warens, 'la perte de notre commune amie, de cette femme si charmante et toujours si respectable qui prit soin de ma jeunesse et m'a donn les seuls beaux jours que la duret de mon sort m'ait jamais permis de goter'. Dwelling upon his departure from her, and the misfortune that has since pursued him, he romanticises about the idyllic existence that he might instead have enjoyed, 'J'aurois pass des jours sereins dans l'obscurit de sa retraite, je la lui aurois rendue agrable, je lui aurois sauv peut-tre quelques imprudences, je l'aurois soigne dans ses infirmits, j'aurois ferm ses yeux, et je l'aurois suivie'. If his health permits, he will accept Conzi's invitation and they will talk of her. Rousseau entered the household of Franoise-Louise-Eleonore de la Tour, Baronne de Warens, at Annecy in 1728, before his conversion to Catholicism. He was seventeen and Madame de Warens thirteen years older. Their tender mutual affection was to remain in his memory as the greatest happiness of his life. Monsieur de Conzi (1707-1789), of a noble family of Savoy, was a long-standing friend of the Baronne. He befriended Rousseau and allowed him to use his library. In August 1762 it was Conzi who wrote to inform him of her death, and he invited Rousseau to visit him at Les Charmettes. At this time, Emile had recently been condemned and its author banished from France. Rousseau was soon to be forced to leave the canton of Berne and, driven out of Mtiers-Travers, sought refuge with Hume in England. He visited Geneva again in 1768 but by then Conzi, influenced by the Duc de Choiseul, ostracised him. The letter is not in the Correspondance Complte (Geneva, 1965-1998). Provenance . The letter was in the collection of Lady Elizabeth Foster (d. 1824, Duchess of Devonshire from 1809), from whom it has come by descent to the present owner.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
