The lion’s share of the collection is made up of letters from French artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The great masters of this period, from David to Monet and Degas – are all represented with several specimens of their handwriting, and not infrequently – as in the case of Ingres – with sizeable dossiers. But the collection also comprises countless writs by lesser known or obscure artists, many of them unpublished, that make it a treasure trove for the art historian. Among the larger files are those from (or relating to) Jean-Pierre Hoüel, Aignan-Thomas Desfriches, Antoine Étex, Théophile Thoré-Bürger, Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, Henri Fantin-Latour, Léon Lhermitte, Émile Bernard and the Goncourt brothers. The collection houses substantial parts of the archives of Paul Baudry and Alfred Philippe Roll.