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472 West End Avenue, New York June 27, 1916

Henry C. Frick Esq Pride's Crossing, Mass.

Dear Mr. Frick;- Your courteous note of the 22nd inviting me to see your "Houdon bust of Mlle La Clairon" and give you my opinion as to its genuiness [sic.] reached me in due course of mail and had just been read when Miss Williams called me up to fix a time for me to call and examine the bust, which I did the same day (Friday 23rd inst) as Miss Williams has doubtless advised you. Having to leave town later in the day I could not acknowledge your letter until now. The bust in question is not signed by Houdon. The base has his name and the date chiseled upon it which of course could be done by any one and is a perfectly proper thing to do for identification, but in no way authenticates the work. The bust itself does not appeal to me as a work by Houdon. I cannot "feel" Houdon in it. This expression may not convey as much to you as it really signifies. To me it is the foundation of the authenticity of a work of art. If I do not "feel" the artist in the work it is because he is not there. Detailed criticism, pro or con, comes afterward. You of course know that the most difficult of all problems in art is to determine what is an original, you call it genuine, piece of sculpture. The rules that apply to painting have no application to sculpture for very obvious reasons. The original work of the sculptor's brain and hand being made of plastic clay, falls to pieces or, as it is called "bursts", as soon as it is allowed to dry and the creation is preserved only by immediately taking a mold of the clay model, from which matrix a cast is made and that cast is the nearest to an original by the sculptor that remains and is the very best rendering of his work that is preserved. This Houdon realized better than most sculptors as is shown by the many fine terra cotta-baked clay-busts by him that we have and you can see the fine quality of these terra-cotta busts by the beautiful one you have by Pajou of P.A. Hall, the miniaturist, which is a great work of art and shows the exact tool work of the modeller. When a piece of statuary is to be produced in marble it is cut out of the block by what are called