Henri Gaudier to Sophie Brzeska

The Lovers
Henri Gaudier (1891-1915) was born in St. Jean-de-Braye, central France, the son of a carpenter and a descendant of several generations of stonemasons. He studied art (and some business affairs) in Orléans, Bristol, Nuremberg, and Munich. From early 1911 he worked as a sculptor in London, later attracting the patronage of the poet Ezra Pound. One of the first creators of abstract sculptures, he became a member of the Vorticist movement--led by Percy Wyndham Lewis--which aimed to reflect the modern industrial world in art, using angular abstract shapes to give the impression of movement. His most famous works include the sculptors The Dancer and The Embracers. He was also a fine painter and sketcher. Henri died fighting for France in World War I, on June 5, 1915, at the age of 24.	Sophie Brzeska (1873-d?) was born near Cracow in Poland, the only daughter in a family of nine children. From the age of 16, she had ambitions to be a writer but had little success. sophie studied n Cracow, then worked in Paris, Philadelphia, and New York as a poorly paid governess. She was prone to ill health and depression all her life, afflictions that were exacerbated by constant poverty. Before 1910, when she met Henri Gaudier in Paris, she had made many unsuccessful attempts to find a husband. From late 1910 to 1914 she lived mainly in London with Henri. Although increasingly neurotic, she was widely read and loved to discuss art and literature with Henri, with whom she had a platonic and largely maternal relationship. She outlive Henri and died--poor and alone--in a mental institution.

The Lovers

Henri Gaudier
(1891-1915)
was born in St. Jean-de-Braye, central France, the son of a carpenter and a descendant of several generations of stonemasons. He studied art (and some business affairs) in Orléans, Bristol, Nuremberg, and Munich. From early 1911 he worked as a sculptor in London, later attracting the patronage of the poet Ezra Pound. One of the first creators of abstract sculptures, he became a member of the Vorticist movement--led by Percy Wyndham Lewis--which aimed to reflect the modern industrial world in art, using angular abstract shapes to give the impression of movement. His most famous works include the sculptors The Dancer and The Embracers. He was also a fine painter and sketcher. Henri died fighting for France in World War I, on June 5, 1915, at the age of 24.

Sophie Brzeska
(1873-d?)
was born near Cracow in Poland, the only daughter in a family of nine children. From the age of 16, she had ambitions to be a writer but had little success. sophie studied n Cracow, then worked in Paris, Philadelphia, and New York as a poorly paid governess. She was prone to ill health and depression all her life, afflictions that were exacerbated by constant poverty. Before 1910, when she met Henri Gaudier in Paris, she had made many unsuccessful attempts to find a husband. From late 1910 to 1914 she lived mainly in London with Henri. Although increasingly neurotic, she was widely read and loved to discuss art and literature with Henri, with whom she had a platonic and largely maternal relationship. She outlive Henri and died--poor and alone--in a mental institution.

November 16, 1912

Dearest and Best,
I went to the Zoo. The beasts had a curious effect on me, which I haven't hitherto experienced; I have always admired them, but now I hate them--the dreadful savagery of these wild animals who hurl themselves on their food is too horribly like the ways of humans. What moved me most was a group of four chimpanzees. They were like primitive men...It's most depressing thus to see our own origin--depressing, not because we sprang from this, but that we may so easily slip back to it. Our knowledge is great, but how empty!...[It] allows us to make use of all the forces already in existence--our art to interpret emotions already felt; a big war, an epidemic and we collapse into ignorance and darkness, fit sons of chimpanzees. Our one consolation is Love, confidence, the embracing of spirit and of body. When we are united we think neither of outer darkness nor of animal brutality. Our human superiority vibrates through our passions, and we love the world--but how insignificant we really are, and how subject to universal law!
Sweet dear, I am so blessed in being able to love you, and blessed to be the day when the great sun guided me to you; without your love I should have been flung into an outer darkness, where bones rot, and where man is subject to the same law as beasts...Dear, dear love, I press you to me with all my force, and only your help enables me to work. I thank you, dear Sun, lovely Star, for having created women and men that we may be united, mingle our personalities, melt together our hearts and, by the union of our passionate bodies, better liberate our souls, making of us a single creature--the absolute human which you have endowed with so many gifts.
Goodnight, dear heart, sweet Sister, Mother. Think that we are together in the same bed, and by our perfect union, making prayer to God.

Their Story

Text from
Famous Love Letters
Messages of Intimacy and Passion
Edited by Ronald Tamplin