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Robert Woods Bliss to Royall Tyler, June 8, 1931

Buenos Aires, June 8, 1931.Monday.

Dear Royall,

This is just a line to send you the enclosed letter of introduction to Señor Danvila,Alfonso Danvila (1879–1945), a Spanish novelist and diplomat who served as his country’s ambassador to Argentina and France. the new Spanish Ambassador to France, who sailed for his post a few days ago. I doubt if he reaches Paris much before this letter arrives for he will go to Madrid before presenting his credentials in Paris.

I think you will find him an agreeable acquaintance and I know he will be glad to co-operate in any way to further your ends, even though his arrival is too late to be of assistance to the Byzantine Exhibition.

Mildred and I can hardly bear missing that Exhibition and if there were any way in which we could get away for a two-weeks visit to Paris, nothing would hold us back. But it cannot be done.

Your letters are the bright spot in a monotonous exacting life. We are both most grateful for you kind activity at the Vignet [sic] sale.Vignier sale at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 21, 1931. Tableaux moderns. Aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Carrière, Delacroix, Derain, Gauguin, Maillol, Picasso, etc. Oeuvres de Cézanne, Courbet, Degas, Delacroix, Derain, Dufy, Forain, Gauguin, Maillol, Marchand, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Segonzac, Toulouse Lautrec, Vlaminck. Oeuvres importantes de Degas composant la collection de Monsieur Ch. V. dont La Vente Aura Lieu à Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Paris–21 mai 1931. I meant to telegraph you to ask you to keep the little De Gas [sic] picture for us. Should it have been sent to the flat and you care to live with it for a while, tell Mlle. MalyeThérèse Malye (1886–1951), Mildred Barnes Bliss’s social secretary in Paris. that you are going to keep it for us. We have not been able to make up our minds as yet about the enamel or the mosaicHayford Peirce acquired the icon from Géza Dános (1886–1990), a Jewish Hungarian collector, in Paris in 1931, and his widow, Polly, gave it to the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in his memory in October 1947. but you will doubtless [have] received a cablegram before this reaches you.

Political matters here, after a disquieting flurry a few weeks ago, have simmered down and the present outlook is favorable to a reasonable solution of the problems of a revolutionary Government.The Second Spanish Republic began on April 14, 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes.

With affectionate messages to you both,

Yours always,
RWB

 
Associated People: Charles Vignier; Hayford Peirce