Nothing gave Gauguin greater pleasure than de Monfreid’s report of a running duel in the salesroom between Degas and the collector Stanislas-Henri Rouart bidding against each other for Gauguin’s pictures. De Monfreid further reported that Degas had requested to be alerted in good time when shipments of Gauguin’s paintings were expected in Paris. ‘Write to him,’ said Gauguin. ‘I have always been afraid to do so, and with good cause. He would only think I was doing it for a purpose, and I know him. If he can, and wants to help me, he will do it more easily and more gladly of his own volition than if I were to ask him.’
Gauguin was starting to feel secure that a market in his paintings, though small, was steady. So it came as a shock when, in 1899, after receiving 1,000 francs from de Monfreid in January (half of which came from the sale of Nevermore to the composer Frederick Delius, a great devotee of Edgar Allan Poe), no money arrived throughout the rest of the year. By June, he was getting desperate.
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