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Wednesday 10 July 2013

Meeting Miss Thomasson

Sunday, July 10th., Rue de Calais, Paris.

I went to tea at Miss Thomasson's on Saturday and met Hofbauer one of the most famous young painters in Paris today. A handsome, very blond man of about 30, and fully aware that he is handsome. Vain, and yet charmingly so, and not too much so. He spoke scarcely any English, and had better manners than most painters. Afterwards at the Cafe de Versailles, Kelly told me that he was inordinately and devilishly clever, but idle; also that his big picture in this year's Salon, 'Coin de Bataille', bought by the state, was painted quite without models.
See also, 'Gloomy in Paris' - June 27th., http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/gloomy-in-paris.html

Charles Hoffbauer 1904 (photo) by Paul Dornac

Charles Hoffbauer (1875–1957)  was a prolific, French-born artist renowned for his historic murals and paintings, in addition to the impressionist New York City street scenes which brought him considerable success in America. In 1904 he exhibited "Coin de Bal" at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.





Later, Miss Thomasson and I went through the July Fair at Montmartre. We shot at a shooting gallery. The attendant girls were brightly dressed in new, pink fluffy frocks, uniformly. It seemed as if this detail signified the completion of the preparations for the fair. I have watched its development each day for a week - the gradual arrival of shapeless caravans, dirty men and draggled women; the erection of the baraques, the emergence of finery, luxurious detail. And last night everything was accomplished, and our guns were served to us by damsels in marvellous pink. We spent four and a half francs in ten minutes.

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