Ambroise Vollard: Claude Monet

 "Madame Monet and Her Son" by Renoir

"The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil" by Manet

"On the first day of my Cézanne exhibition, a very stout man with a beard came into the shop. He looked a typical gentleman-farmer. Without haggling he purchased three of the most important paintings. I imagined I had to do with some provincial collector. It was Claude Monet. I saw him again more than once on his way through Paris. What was most striking in a painter of his celebrity, was his extreme simplicity, and the fervent admiration he expressed for his old comrade of the heroic days of Impressionism. 

I had the honour of being received by Monet at Giverny. I had been looking forward to all the paintings by himself that I should have the good fortune to see. But there were very few, and I expressed my astonishment at the fact. 'But you see, there is no room left,' said the Master. It was quite true. The house was large, but the walls of all the rooms were covered with paintings by Monet's friends. I told him one did not often see pictures of such rare quality in the hands of even the best known collectors. 'And yet I only take what I can get cheap,' he said. 'Most of the paintings on these walls had been lying about for a long while in shop windows. In a sense I bought them by way of protest against the indifference of the public.

I was looking at the picture, 'La Famille Monet,' by Renoir. 'Manet,' said Claude Monet, 'wanted one day to paint my wife and children. Renoir was there. He took a canvas too and began painting the same subject. By and by Manet drew me into a corner and whispered, 'You're on very good terms with Renoir and take an interest in his future. Do advise him to give up painting. You can see for yourself that it's not at all his job!'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Recollections of a Picture Dealer" by Ambroise Vollard.)