Carnet de Voyage: Mystery Art

Update: I had no idea this letter had been published – delighted to find it has been. For anyone interested, the mystery has been solved, in part by searching online for lists of "ruined castles in France". The Derain drawing shows the Château de Clisson, a 13th-century ruin southeast of Nantes. From the wikipedia entry about the Château: "Most of the present castle was built in the 13th century. Constructed by Guillaume de Clisson, on a rocky outcrop dominating the Sèvre Nantaise… In the 14th century, Olivier III de Clisson incorporated the gatehouse into a massive quadrilangular keep. The two semicircular towers of the gatehouse collapsed in the 17th century. The castle became the setting for the turbulent lives of Olivier IV de Clisson and Olivier V de Clisson, named Constable of France in succession to Du Guesclin in 1380. The castle is said to be haunted by Jeanne de Clisson wife of Olivier IV." Derain's drawing employs a distinctively precise drawing style he often used in depicting architectural subjects, of which the most famous might be Paris' Pont Neuf – of which he did a well-known etching, created in 1937.