Paul Gauguin Quote

This Cézanne [a 'Still life with Compotier, Fruit and Glass'], that you ask me for is a pearl of exceptional quality and I already have refused three hundred francs for it; it is one of my most treasured possessions, and except in absolute necessity, I would give up my last shirt before the picture.

In a letter (June 1888) to his friend Émile Schuffenecker