I am surrounded by a small group of young landscapists who will be very happy get to know you. Besides, they are real painters... I find myself very well fixed here. I am drawing figures at hard. And at the Academy, there are only landscapists. They begin to perceive that it's a good thing.

1859 letter to his mentor Eugène Boudin; Quoted in: John Rewald (1961) The History of Impressionism - Volume 1. p. 48 - 1850–1870