I insist upon 'doing it alone'. Much as I enjoyed making the trip there with Renoir as a tourist, I'd find it hard to work there together. I have always worked better alone and from my own impressions.... If he Renoir knew I was about to go, Renoir would doubtless want to join me and that would be equally disastrous for both of us.

In a letter to his art-buyer Durand-Ruel in Paris, 1884; as quoted in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 51 - 1870–1890