KOKOSCHKA (Oskar, 1886-1980, Austrian-born British Artist, Poet & Playwright)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed with Initials to Gaby GOLDSCHEIDER in London, daughter of his old friend and collaborator Ludwig GOLDSCHEIDER (1896-1973, Austrian-born Art Historian & Poet, who founded the Phaidon Press in Vienna in 1923 and then in England in 1938), in German with transcription and translation, saying he knows "that your dear father is no longer alive. I wrote you a letter a little while ago. I am very sorry that, again, one of my few true friends is gone ... By good fortune you always got on well with him and he needed that very much because he too had no one else in a world that was ever more foreign to him ... I would dearly like to see you once more", he continues "Your wood engravings are not supposed to go through the post" but have to be hand-carried, "I have to take these to the 'Customs Office', God knows where it is situated in Lausanne ... signing for everything takes such a time, doesn't it?", asking "... Do you make a living? Are you going to get married one day?", and ending "it is too late for Happy Easter", so "best wishes for Whitsun and come once more and see your O.K.", with a beautiful reproduction of a scene in colours by the artist, showing park land sloping down to a river, people promenading and couples dancing under the trees, watched by a mounted rider in the bottom left corner, at the head Kokoschka has pasted a strip of paper, with, in pencil in English, "for Gaby at Easter-time from OK", 5½" x 8¼", and with the original autograph envelope, the letter 2 sides 8vo, Villeneuve, Vaud, Switzerland, 24th April (Transcription)
O. Kokoschka
24.4.74
1844 Villeneuve (Suisse)
Tél. (021) 60 13 12
Meine liebe Gaby
Ich weiß daß dein lieber Vater nicht mehr lebt: Ich schrieb dir einen Brief vor einiger Zeit. Mir ist sehr leid, wieder einer meinen wenigen wahren Freunde gegangen. Man wird immer einsamer. Du hast dich, zum Glück, immer gut mit ihm verstanden und das hat er sehr gebraucht weil er auch niemanden mehr sonst hatte in einer auch für ihm immer fremder Welt.
Wie geht es dir jetzt? Kommst du nicht einmal in unsere Nähe? Ich möchte dich sehr gern einmal wiedersehen.
Deine xylographien sollten nicht durch die Post sondern entweder durch dich oder einen Bekannten [Side 2] gebracht werden.
Ich müsste diese zum "Zollamt", weiß Gott wo in Lausanne sta<n>tionierten Zollamt bringen müssen. Durch die Post wären schwierigkeiten, man ist hier pedantisch, die unterschriften haben ja Zeit, nicht wahr?
Was machst du denn überhaupt? Hast du zu leben? Wirst du auch einmal unter die Haube kommen? Viele Fragen, Probleme. Verspätet noch herzliche Oster - nun vielmehr Pfingsten wünsche und zeig dich einmal deinem
OK
(Translation)
O. Kokoschka
24th April 1974
1844 Villeneuve (Switzerland)
Tel. (021) 60 13 12
My dear Gaby,
I know that your dear father is no longer alive. I wrote you a letter a little while ago. I am very sorry that, again, one of my few true friends is gone. One becomes more and more alone. By good fortune you always got on well with him and he needed that very much because he too had no one else in a world that was ever more foreign to him.
How are you now? Won't you be coming this way again? I would dearly like to see you once more.
Your wood engravings are not supposed to go through the post but either brought yourself or by someone known to you. I have to take these to the 'Customs Office', God knows where it is situated in Lausanne. It would be difficult through the post, they are so pedantic here, signing for something takes such a time, doesn't it?
What do you do chiefly? Do you make a living? Are you going to get married one day? So many questions, problems.
It is too late for 'Happy Easter', so now instead, best wishes for Whitsun and come once more and see your
OK

Ludwig Goldscheider also wrote the text for the Phaidon 'Oskar Kokoschka', London, 1963. After her father's death, Gaby opened an antiquarian bookshop in Windsor and wrote a bibliography of Sherlock Holmes. [See the Times, 30th November 1985]. In Austria, Kokoschka had not always got on with his own father, a goldsmith, over support of the family and his own desire to be an artist.
In 1974, Easter fell on 14th April, Whitsun on 2nd July.

Item Date:  1974

Stock No:  56575      £1750

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