I Had So Much Fire In Me

One Is Too Taken Up With All That One Sees And Hears In Paris, However Strong One Is, And What I Do Here [in Etretat] Will At Least Have The Merit Of Being Unlike Anyone Else, At Least I Believe So, Because It Will Simply Be The Expression Of What I, And Only I, Have Felt.

I Do Have A Dream, A Tableau Of The Bathing Place Of La Grenouillère, For Which I've Done Some Bad Pochades (sketches), But It Is A Dream. Renoir, Who Have Just Spent A Couple Of Months Here, Also Wants To Paint This Subject.

I Sometimes Feel Ashamed That I Am Devoting Myself To Artistic Pursuits While So Many Of Our People Are Suffering And Dying For Us. It's True That Fretting Never Did Any Good.

I'm Enjoying The Most Perfect Tranquillity, Free From All Worries, And In Consequence Would Like To Stay This Way Forever, In A Peaceful Corner Of The Countryside Like This.

I Want To Paint The Air In Which The Bridge, The House And The Boat Are To Be Found - The Beauty Of The Air Around Them, And That Is Nothing Less Than The Impossible.