It Is Better To Have Done Something

It Was At Home I Learned The Little I Know. Schools Always Appeared To Me Like A Prison, And Never Could I Make Up My Mind To Stay There, Not Even For Four Hours A Day, When The Sunshine Was Inviting, The Sea Smooth, And When It Was Joy To Run About The Cliffs In The Free Air, Or To Paddle In The Water.

One Day Boudin Said To Me, 'learn To Draw Well And Appreciate The Sea, The Light, The Blue Sky.' I Took His Advice.

These Landscapes Of Water And Reflection Have Become An Obsession.

For Me, The Subject Is Of Secondary Importance: I Want To Convey What Is Alive Between Me And The Subject.

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.