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Letters to Alfred Roll
- "The collection comprises twenty letters, notes and postcards sent by La Touche to Alfred Roll, president of the Société nationale des beaux-arts. It covers sixteen years of La Touche's activity within the SNBA mostly as a member of the Salon's commission and as vice-president. In his early letters he asks Roll to recommend the talented young artists Brugnot and Luigini for the Salon. He thanks his friend for defending his painting La barque against malevolent critics in St. Petersburg (1897). He invites Roll and his friends to his atélier in St. Cloud to see and judge the works La Touche had prepared for a personal exhibition in London (1899). In 1910 he complains bitterly that his merits are not being recognized, and his efforts of reorganizing the commission did not succeed; he is ready to quit, and keeps working only "pour mon successeur...c'est pour lui que j'élabore le prochain règlement" of SNBA. An undated note asks for an emergency meeting with Roll, who needs to be briefed about the agitated conversation he had with Beaumetz, the sous-secrétaire des Beaux-arts, before they meet him at the session of the Jury of Brussels. In 1911, when the election of a new president of SNBA approaches, La Touche's choice is Bartholomé. Pushed by Lhermitte, he accepts hesitantly the candidacy, confessing that he is not able to campaign and, if faced with opposition, he will promote Moutenard. La Touche regularly sends Roll"