[Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901). Adèle-Zoé, Countess de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, née Tapié de Céleyran (1841-1930). 3 L.A.S., May-October 1911, [to Gustave Coquiot] 7 pages in-8, and 2 pages in-12 (mourning). Interesting letters from the Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec about her son. Toulouse 13th May. She hastens to answer her correspondent's questions about her son Henri, in 9 points: dates of birth and death; "Good health but difficult growth. When he was 13, he broke his leg slipping on a wooden floor and, as soon as he had recovered, he suffered the same accident to the other leg in the Pyrenees. He stopped growing and walking became very difficult for him"; his studies, from the age of 7 in Paris and then at the Lycée Condorcet, "always at the top of his class. [He was not yet 17 when he passed his rhetoric exam, but his artistic vocation was so irresistible that it was impossible to get him to prepare for philosophy. So he went to the Bonnat studio", then to the Cormon studio... "He always had the idea of painting. He always had the idea of drawing. At the christening of his brother (who died at the age of 1), he asked for the feather that was passed from hand to hand for signatures", to draw an ox; he was not yet three years old... He began to paint in the studio of his friend Princeteau, but his first teacher was Bonnat... She also specifies: "He often went to Arcachon and Taussat in the last years of his life, during the summer. He loved the sea, boats and was a good swimmer. He made two trips to Spain and several to London and Brussels, but he never visited Italy"... - 21 May. She agrees to give information about her son. "As for those relating to other members of my family, I have serious reasons for asking you to keep them to yourself. Talk about him, that's enough for his memory". She returns to her genealogy and provides further details on the information in the first letter. Princeteau "allowed Henri to see him work, and to have fun drawing at his place, that's all. Although they were of very different ages, there was a real friendship between them. [...] It was in Nice that he began to paint in oils for the 1st time, the types and crews that amused him"; as he spoke English well, he enjoyed it very much. "He loved dogs, swimming and even contemplating the sea. His intelligence was astonishing when it came to grasping the meaning of things, but he abhorred formulas", and hated learning by heart... "He was loved everywhere because of his character. He was loved everywhere by his frank and cheerful character, by his fine and original mind"... Château de Malromé 11 October. "I have made a very firm resolution to stay out of anything published about my son. It will be necessary to contact his father; however, she thanks him for the interest shown "in my poor Henri"...