Picasso

It was a devastating moment for Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who was deeply affected by the loss of his collection and at least as much by the resulting moral and financial damage. Moreover, given the war and his exile, he was unable to continue supporting the gallery's artists, and many of them either decided to leave for other dealers —such as Léonce Rosenberg, who had been involved in organizing the sales of works from his colleague's gallery— or faced serious financial difficulties during this turbulent period.

Picasso blamed Kahnweiler bitterly for having abandoned his gallery's artists to their fate and for neglecting to pay him the sum of 20,000 francs that he owed him —maybe even willingly, or at least that is what the artist implied when referring to the subject. Kahnweiler was distressed by the tense situation, and approached the thorny subject explaining his reasons and seeking to recover his friend's trust: given the political situation, it was entirely impossible for him to freely access his frozen bank assets; he himself was actually living on credit. "Your attitude towards me since 1914 has been a mystery to me. But that's not the point now; what matters is the future. [...] There must have been a misunderstanding between us and it would be in both our interests to clear this misunderstanding. At the beginning of the war, you didn't answer any of my letters [...]. Afterwards, you filed a complaint against me, and since then you seem to have gone after me with a degree of hatred that I don't think I deserve. [...] There was a time when you trusted me completely. And we were also friends, I really believed so. [...] There was a time when I was able to be of service to you. Our relations were not the usual relations between a painter and a dealer; I did all I could for you, and was delighted to do so. […] As you may know, I have written a book about the genesis of Cubism, which will be published soon. I will send it to you. I have also agreed to write a book about you. I have started working on it, and it will be published at the end of the year. I am fully confident that your reply will clear this dreadful misunderstanding —for that is all it can be— and that a friendship that is one of the loveliest memories of my life will be renewed."[1]