14 Oct 1921

14 October 1921

Chalet des Sapins, Montana-sur-Sierre, Switzerland

Sometimes, in your work, it seems to me you have the idea, the feeling, the ‘overwhelming emotion' right enough and then, instead of holding on you lose hold, and something shaky happens - something is not realised fully.So that it might be the result of an accident that the picture looked as it does at the finish. You don't do the squeezing process long enough or hard enough. Take for instance, The Mannequin. The middle figure is beautifully painted but it fails as a whole, I feel. The corner drops out. I know it wasn't finished when I saw it but then it seems to me it ought not to have been finished all over. It ought to have been all at a certain stage - not one figure beautifully finished. That is so devilishly dangerous. One spends oneself on the detail before the time has come for that. To put it absolutely brutally - just where you go soft you ought to be hard, it seems to me. Dear Brett, I know how difficult this is, and I know I am horribly outspoken. Tell me how wrong I am! I remember often a still life of yours - Asters - I think that was most lovely. I think you have exquisite feeling and sensibility. But you know this . . . There it is.
   Dont send me any ‘present'. It was a letter I wanted - and I got a lovely one - a real gift. Thank you dearest. I will remember yours on November 15th and send you an envelope & trimmings. [...]
   Goodbye for now, dear little artist. Keep warm. Be happy. Id like to give you a small hug. If you knew how much I like your purple writing on an envelope!
                                  Yours ever
                                     Katherine

[To Dorothy Brett, Collected Letters, 15 October 1921.]