Lola Germon Kirkwood was about sixty years old and Laurence Brumidi was forty-one when the following two letters were written from the mother to the son:
Home (Richmond), May 29, 1902
“The check and ‘heads’ came safely, and would have been acknowledged sooner, but I hoped to write a longer letter, and waited for a more encouraging mood, but none came.
“I wish I could sell them for you but an art man told Mr. Kirkwood this was a poor city for such sales, the people being too poor. You see they are just about recovering from the results of the civil war. Then besides people want large showy things. In other words, they want big things for little money. They are beautiful but if I had to buy them I would too want something larger.
“I am sorry you sent anything you put so much work on. I thought I made myself plain. I wanted something big too. Even a landscape thrown roughly on. There would have been likely no visitor here to have told good work, and if asked I would have said it was sent me by a young student. But if I should get a chance to sell, you know how glad I shall be. I am quite sure if Whitney, Morgan, Carnegie or any of those great rich men were properly approached they would give perhaps thousands of dollars for the original copy of the dome, alone. I should think it would be a great thing for them to have in their private gallery. In the meantime why don’t you try a letter to these men?”
Mother
Home (Richmond), October 9, 1902
“I am sorry to hear you have been again sick, and thought as much when the letter came a little later than usual.
“Yes, when the lawyer’s letter came I found myself disappointed, though I had promised myself not to be. If we had of gotten any money you could easily put through that claim at Congress and could also have made money out of those sketches of your father’s dome pictures and others. It takes money to make money, unfortunately.
“I have always tried to coax you to keep up correspondence with Elena. I don’t know why it is but I have lived in the hope that the agent may sell enough of your father’s pictures in the fall to give you some comfort for the rest of your life. I should think the sketch of the dome alone would do that. And then I feel the moment you did not of necessity require it you would be able to sell as many of your own as you would desire. Keep up good spirits.”