"Je suis en ce moment a Osny/ ce delicieux petit pays./ Mais il fait un froid a/ la la. […] Moi je suis content je suis/ entrain de faire un pastel/ assez grand et une peinture/ d’une grand dimension/ Je vais vous en faire un/ croquis1 […]" [sic] (Right at this moment I am in Osny, this wonderful little land. But it is very cold. … I am happy I am doing a pastel, rather large and also a large painting. I make you a sketch of it1 ...) (Philippe Smit 1912/13a)
"[…] l’argent/ que Nico/ ma donné/ est présque/ parti car il m’a donné 100 [FRF]/ la dessus j’ai acheter des couleur/ puis et les etudes que j’ai fait[es]/ avec tout l’argent du voyage/ tout les jours pour aller a/ Osny […] tu ma demander ci j’ai/ froid quant on peint sur des/ hauteur on n’a pas chaud c’est/ tout naturelle et surtout quant/ l’on bouge pas enfin ça serais/rien le principale c’est de faire/ des œuvres interessante Nico/ ma donné sont jolie pardessus/ tu c’est [sais] ce gris il me va très/ bien […]" [sic] (... the money Nico gave me is almost used, as he gave me on top 100 [FRF] I bought colours and then the studies I did, with all the money spent on travelling, every day I went to Osny … you asked if I was cold, if one paints on an elevation one does not feel warm, this is quite natural and specially if you do not move. But no matter, what counts is to do interesting works, Nico gave me his nice overcoat, it is grey you know, it fits me well ...) (Philippe Smit 1912/13b)
"[…] Croyez [un mot illisible] qu’il fait froid/ figure toi que cette semaine/ je suis aller a Osny/ c’était extraordinaire jamais/ j’ai vu la nature aussi/ jolie et grandiose tout est/ blanc et plus de ca du givre/ aussi tout les arbres c’étant/ un vrais dentelle […]" [sic] (... Be sure that it is cold here. This week I went to Osny, this was extraordinary, I have never seen nature so beautiful and grand, all is white and with frost, also all the trees, a true lacework ...) (Philippe Smit 1913a)
Though Philippe Smit could already have visited Osny and its surroundings while he was in Auvers-sur-Oise in 1911/12 a letter to his friend Massé and a card to little Marijke proof that he spent the end of the year 1912 and autumn 1913 in this village. Thanks to his correspondence, we know that Philippe Smit made several paintings in Osny. Although until now we can only identify this winter landscape of which he made a sketch in a letter to Nicolaas et Berendina Urban (fig. 1).
1. The whereabouts of the painting for which he did this sketch (see [PS 66]) are unknown.
