Millet to Stoddard: April 24, 1877
[Letter 20: Letters of Frank Millet to Charles Warren Stoddard: May 10, 1875 - January 3, 1900
No 8 Rue de l’Orient
Montmartre
Paris April 24/77
My dear chummeke: --
I haven’t written for some time because I have been moving. And indeed I have
be so everlastingly mixed up that I am not sure whether I have described to you
my celebrated hotel – you know that everybody who owns a whole house or
occupies one calls it a hotel. Well it is in the top of Montmartre near the old
windmills which you have probably seen. We have a fine little garden, two rooms
on the ground floor where I have my carpenter’s shop and on the first floor a
kitchen, salon and dining room. The second story has three chambers where
sleep Mrs. Merrill, the two girls and William.[1] The third story has a fine studio and the nicest little box of a chamber
adjoining
[page 3] with W.C. and everything handy. My bed is very narrow but you can manage to occupy it I hope. If not we can fix
things in the studio when I shall have a divan when I get time to make it. I have
made all the furniture for the Salon and there is the greatest gauming place there
you ever saw – a great Turkish divan extends around the end of the room under
the window and lots of cushions etc. make it comfortable enough. I have my own
particular corner where I sit and smoke and over it is a shelf with pipes etc.
Come and sit there.
By the way the greatest charm of the house is a splendid terrace on top when
you can overlook all Paris like from the Arc de Triomphe. I am about to pose my
models there and paint them in full sunlight.
Donny Adams writes me that she is going to America and will pass through Paris.
I have invited her to stop here and I hope she will. I saw Bloomer the other day,
he said he was writing you. I like the boy very [page 3] much but he lives as far away that he is not use trying to trace him after. There is nothing new to write you except that Anderson has gone to Spain. He is painting it like what they paste on the walls near churches ould you get him one. An old one torn etc. would make no difference.
There must be an end to your waiting, before long and then I hope to see you. Paris will soon be delightful and I hope to have leisure enough to enjoy some of it. It has cost me so much to fix the family here that probably I shall not be able to go way [to stay--crossed out] this summer. However I hope to go for a short trip to the island of Sark and Normandy. If you could come along I should be happy. But all depends of course on my expected remittances.
Do write me.
Yours in haste and with all my heart
F.D.M.
No 8 Rue de l'Orient
(Montmartre) Paris
Notes
- ↑ One of the Merrill girls was Lily, his future wife. Kate, who Millet though should be an opera star was the other.
