I'm very sorry to inconvenience you [the art dealers G. and J. Berheim-Jeune], but I find it impossible to supply you with any more Venice pictures. It was useless trying to persuade my self otherwise, the work that's left is too poor for exhibition. Don't insist.... I've enough good sense in me to know whether what I'm doing is good or bad, and it's utterly bad, and I can't believe that people of taste, if they have any knowledge at all, could see any value in it. Things have been dragging on like this for far too long...

In Monet's letter to his art dealers G. and J. Berheim-Jeune, Venice, 1912; as quoted in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 72 - 1900–1920