HOSCHEDE MONET ALICE: (1844-1911) French artists' model, wife of the art collector Ernest Hoschede and later of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet. A.L.S., A Monet, four pages, 8vo, Giverny par Vernon, Eure, 26th June 1897, to a lady, in French. Hoschedé Monet writes in the purple ink favoured by her second husband and regretfully informs her correspondent that she cannot be held responsible for the debts incurred by her first husband, explaining ´Lorsque vous avez fait crédit à Mr Hoschedé vous ne m’avez pas consultée. Du reste, toute ma fortune personnelle a été engloutie dans la faillite et j’ai dû me remarier sous le régime de la séparation des bien pour éviter à Mr Monet, qui a des enfants, de voir ce qu’il gagne pris par les créanciers de mon mari. De même mes enfants ont dû renoncer à la succession de leur père qui aurait entravé tout leur avenir´ (Translation: ´When you extended credit to Mr Hoschedé, you did not consult me. Moreover, my entire personal fortune was swallowed up in the bankruptcy, and I had to remarry under the regime of separation of property to prevent Mr Monet, who has children, from having his earnings seized by my husband’s creditors. Similarly, my children had to renounce their father’s estate, which would have jeopardised their entire future´), and further adding ´Je suis toujours extrêmement malheureuse lorsque ces réclamations bien juste, et auxquelles il m’est impossible de faire droit n’ayant absolument plus aucune fortune me parviennent. Dans ce cas cela m’est encore plus pénible puisque vous détenez des papiers de famille´ (Translation: ´I am always deeply distressed when these entirely justified claims reach me—claims to which I am unable to grant any satisfaction, having absolutely no fortune left. In this instance, it is all the more painful for me, as you are in possession of family documents´). An interesting letter providing evidence of the practical financial precautions surrounding the Monet-Hoschedé marriage. VG

Ernest Hoschedé (1837-1891), a wealthy textile merchant and important early patron and collector of the Impressionists, commissioned Monet in 1876 to paint decorative panels for his Château de Rottembourg at Montgeron. His spectacular financial collapse the following year resulted in the dispersal of his celebrated art collection at a judicial sale in 1878 and profoundly altered the circumstances of the Hoschedé family. Alice and her six children subsequently shared a household with Claude Monet and his family at Vétheuil, and, following the deaths of Camille Monet in 1879 and Ernest Hoschedé in 1891, Alice and Monet married in July 1892. The present letter provides a revealing reminder that the consequences of Hoschedé's bankruptcy continued to pursue Alice two decades later: she explains that her own fortune had been consumed by the failure, that her children had renounced their father's estate, and, significantly, that she had married Monet under a regime of separation of property specifically to protect the painter and his earnings from the claims of Hoschedé's creditors.