I am not neglecting my work. It makes heavy demands upon me, but I like to believe that it will not be sterile. I have had a studio built upon a bit of land which I acquired for the purpose and I am pursuing my researches there. As soon as I am satisfied that they have borne fruit, I shall inform you of the results. Nearby is a spot that affords a view of his favourite motif: Mont Sainte-Victoire.
The house has several small rooms but he seldom slept there as he had an apartment in town. The large studio is upstairs, with an enormous window facing the cool, clear northern light that is ideal for painters.
On a rare visit to Giverny to join Monet at a gathering of some of the leading artists of the time he met Mary Cassatt who described her impressions in a letter to a friend:. When I first saw him, I thought he looked like a cutthroat with large red eyeballs standing out from his head in a most ferocious manner, a rather fierce-looking pointed beard, quite grey, and an excited way of talking that positively made the dishes rattle.
He uttered profanities and drank the dregs of his soup straight from the bowl, yet he recited tracts of Ovid and Virgil in Latin. He was scornful of priests, but faithfully attended Mass. Professing hatred of the Paris Salon, he had submitted canvases to its judges year after year, only to be rejected. While exalting traditions of art, he obsessed about overturning them. And he could consider himself a failure one minute, and the best in his time the next. He learned important lessons from the Impressionists, especially their use of small, separate strokes of the brush, and the observation of exact appearances, rather than imaginary scenes.
But he broke with them early, finding their work too ephemeral. Introspective and stubbornly bent on his purpose, he had broken with established painting techniques, beginning his famous exploration of the relationship between colour, line and form. It was revolutionary.
