Part: 12         Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536         Page 971972973974975976977978979980981982983984985986987988989990991992993994995996997998 of 1143

pain. That was before he came to the United States. After that, he was much better.

Did he know of your connection?

Yes, he knew I was a friend of Dr. Hamberger. I saw him here. I think he came for lunch to this house, and he thanked me for having brought him in touch with Hamberger.

Braque I saw only once. We went to visit him at his house, with Mr. Leonard Lyons, I think, Albert and I, in 1949, or '50, in Paris. He was an extraordinarily handsome man, with wonderful features and marvellous gray hair and a beautiful, intelligent face. The house was arranged with great taste, and -- not expensive in any way, but everything with such great restraint and taste that it looked like a good Braque painting. On a wall was an early picture painted by him in 1918 or '20, and when my husband asked him if he'd sell it he said, “Yes, why not?” And we bought it for about four or five thousand dollars. It's now in the country, in the library. I suppose it's worth fifty or sixty thousand dollars, maybe only forty. It's still extraordinary that his popularity is so great.

As you know, he was given a magnificent tribute at his death by Malraux, a public tribute in front of the Louvre.