Letter from Joseph Milner Kite to Renée Honta O’Conor regarding his knowledge of Roderic O'Conor's life

Part of the Irish Archive

Description

Handwritten letter in French, addressed from Kite at the Hotel de France, Pau. Kite includes an account of his knowledge of Roderic O’Conor's life. He relates that he was in London in 1881 but left towards the end of the year and went to the Academy of Saint Luke in Anvers, where O’Conor arrived a little later. Kite does not have his notes to hand and is a little unsure of some dates. He does not know if O’Conor began to study painting in London where he attended London University. O’Conor arrived in Paris, Kite believes, towards the end of 1883. O’Conor was in [Hotel] Gloanec, now closed, and it was there that he met Gauguin, of whom he became a great admirer. Van Gogh was there also, it seems to Kite that O’Conor knew him also. Later, Gauguin went to Tahiti, O’Conor moved to the Hotel Julia in Pont Aven. There was a studio in the hotel and there he did many heads of old Bretons, influenced by Carolus Duran. Kite remembers a painting which hung in the salon of the Hotel Julia, ‘powerful, admirably drawn’. Kite went to Morocco and stayed there two years, during which time he thinks O’Conor stayed in Hotel Julia in Pont-Aven. After Kite’s return from Morocco, they found themselves together at Grez-sur-Loing. Chadwick’s house there was then the Hotel Laurent. O’Conor stayed there, worked a great deal and did many highly coloured landscapes. Later O’Conor spent a long time in Rochefort-sur-Terre. Kite thinks O’Conor left Pont-Aven to go there. There was a studio there also and he did many etchings on zinc. Without his notes Kite cannot be sure of the dates. He is certain that they were together in Grez for a long time and that was in 1889, the year of the exhibition [at the Café Volpini, Paris]. Chadwick had not yet bought the hotel but it is likely he did so shortly afterwards. Recently Kite has seen a landscape with a waterfall by O’Conor at Chadwick’s house. Kite has some small photos taken at that time in the hotel garden, showing ‘all of us’ and Chadwick’s daughters, little girls, this is about fifty years ago. It was a few years later, Kite thinks, that [O’Conor and Kite] joined a group in Montparnasse. They used to eat at Petit L’Avenue with [Thomas Alexander Harrison, Robert Root, Paul Bartlett, Falquin, Mercier, Raphael Colin, MacManus, Louis Lorb, Saint Gaudens and others. ‘Mademoiselle Fanny’ was at the cash desk. When war broke out in 1914 everyone was scattered. Around that time they returned to Paris and worked in a studio on rue Notre Dame des Champs. [Joseph Crawhall] was also there and later he and Kite went to Morocco. Without his notes Kite cannot help any further. Letter concludes with a chronological summary for 1881-1889.

Creator

Kite, Joseph Milner

Related topics

Kite, Joseph Milner