My dear Pissarro,

You would oblige me greatly if you could tell me by what chain of circumstances the article about me that appeared in Le Gaulois came to be written, who inspired it, and finally who the author is.

I cannot regard the passage concerning Hoschedé as anything but a piece of malice directed at him, but it is extremely unpleasant for me, and I am determined to get to the bottom of this whole affair.

I should be very surprised if this came from all of you and you had not consulted me before allowing such a story to be published.

I have done enough—you will say so yourself, and you will remember it—for the early exhibitions to deserve better treatment; in any case it would be very wrong, and I am astonished that the author of the article, so well informed, did not take the opportunity to announce which paintings I was to exhibit at the next Salon: he would then have been better informed than I was.

In short, my dear friend, you must understand that I am impatient to hear from you—especially since you see those gentlemen every day—what I am to think of all this.

Do me the kindness, therefore, of answering my various questions.

Yours entirely,

Claude Monet

Vetheuil
Seine & Oise