STENDHAL (Henri Beyle, dit). Autograph letter signed "H.Beyl - Lot 194

STENDHAL (Henri Beyle, dit). Autograph letter signed "H.Beyle". Civita-Vecchia, January 25 [1840]. One p. in-8, marginal wetness. "Sir, I would like to show you a Roman prince of perfectly good taste and a lover of paintings. Go up to the Palazzo Sermoneta, via delle Botteghe-oscure, near the Church of the Gesù, under the Capitoline, and ask for Prince Don Philippe Caetani. On the eve of your visit, leave the enclosed letter with the porter at Palazzo Sermonetta. You will be warmly welcomed by my friend D.Filippo. Yours sincerely..." As French Consul in Civita-Vecchia from 1831 to 1836 and from 1839 to 1841, Stendhal was bored to death there, and regularly escaped to Rome, where he made a few friendships in high society, such as with Prince Filippo Caetani (who was for a time his rival with Countess Cini). When his little cousin Ernest Hébert won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1839 and was sent as a boarder to the Villa Medici, Stendhal recommended him to Prince Caetani and asked him to take the young man to the sculptor Pietro Tenerani, a pupil of Canova. Letter omitted from the Pléiade edition. Provenance: Doctor André Dénier in LaTour-du-Pin.