Ittttr to tOt (biter..
THE MOORE
Munich, 20th May, 1860.
Sin—I am sure you will allow me an opportunity through the medium of your journal to correct the strange assertions contained in Mr. Morris Moore's communication from Milan of the let instant, which appeared in the Spectator of the 5th. I can only conclude Mr. Moore's monomania re- specting the persecution which he conceives follows him through Europe, and the incorrectness of his Munich correspondents have originated the mis- statements of circumstances following upon the exhibition of his picture "Apollo and Marsyas " in this city.
All recollection of Mr. Moore's name had escaped m3, memory when he came to Munich, and no communications had ever reached me of any kind either concerning him or the picture. He was introduced to me by Mr. Dietz, the then President of our "Artists' Society" here. Whatever my private opinion may have been regarding the picture, I have never taken any part, directly or indirectly, in the discussions and criticisms with re- ference to it.
I.leave Mr. Moore's personalities respecting my plain civilities to him to your readers' own discretion. I translated as well as I could, in unavoid- able haste, the "Address" referred to by Mr. Moore, presented to him by the President and Secretary of the "Artists' Benevolent Fund ; " I trans- lated this at Mr. Moore's urgent request.
A few days after Mr. Moore left Munich, I mentioned at the Artists' So- ciety, that I had translated this address, giving the wording as I had in- terpreted it ; I was astonished to find none of the members present seemed to be acquainted with the tenor of the document. Some days after this, it was decided, in order to ascertain the real intention of the address, that I should write a letter to the Artists' Society, desiring as a member to be in- formed if my interpretation to Mr. Moore of the address were the correct one ;. that is to say, as an expression of the feelings of the whole of the Munich artists. At a meeting of a large number of mernbere of the Society, it was resolved I should be furnished with a copy of the saidaddress, tonhal with a letter of explanation which they felt was due to me, t' l'
the document Mr. Moore had received was not intended to expressany
critical opinion of theirs relating to the picture but merely to thank Mr. Moore for the pleasure the picture had given, arid for the money received from its exhibition. Both Mr. Dietz (President of the Artists' Society) and Mr. Bernard (President of the Artists' Benevolent Fund) declared .pub- Hely, at this meeting, _and to me personally, that this was the only sense the address was intended to convey. As the copy of the address had been mislaid, I did not receive it with Mr. Dietz' letter of explanation until six weeks had elapsed after the general meeting. I enclose a legalized trans- lation of Mr. Dietz' letter, which I beg you will insert in your columns, together with this.
The language of the address was in a German diplomatic fwm, often diffi- cult for a native to understand, and, of course, doubly so for a foreigner.
These facts constitute the whole of the supposed conspiracy against Mr. Moore, as far as Munich is concerned ; they might have originated in any other circumstances than the exhibition of his picture, and really only con- cerned the private interests of the Artists' Society.
With this letter, I shall close any further comtnunication on the subject.
Previous page
