What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part I

When offered at auction in 2000, a note stated that Wanda de Guébriant had confirmed the authenticity of the present work. Paul Léautaud (1872-1956) was a French writer and theater critic for the prestigious Mercure de France. Léautaud was known as an eccentric intellectual, who preferred their company of animals rather than that of men, perpetually struggling to make ends meet. According to Mavis Gallant, "He was mean, slanderous, and cruel; he could also display generosity and great delicacy in his judgments. Even at his most caustic there was a simplicity, an absence of vanity, rare in a writer (...) His monumental diary Journal Littéraire, which he kept for over fifty years, can without exaggeration be described as the greatest study of character ever written". Although he prepared his last words, he famously passed away saying "Leave me the hell alone".