In 1873, there was a baritone from the Opera named Faure who prided himself on being a talent scout and was infatuated with the new Impressionist school because it allowed him to acquire paintings on the cheap. He knew nothing about art, but he wanted to make a name for himself.
Monet offered him a painting entitled "Sunrise at Vétheuil" which the amateur could have acquired for the very modest sum of 50 francs at the time. But the latter made the following comment:
" ... If I buy your paintings without haggling, it is for the painting. Here there is no painting. You have obviously forgotten. Nothing but canvas, that's not enough. Take this back to me. Put some paint on it and maybe I'll buy it. You see I'm a good boy, right? By the way, now you can tell me. What do you think it represents?"
Monet explained to him that this painting represented the sunrise over Vétheuil. He was in his little boat waiting for the sunrise and when the light appeared, he painted what he saw.
And the baritone insisted heavily:
"...We can't see very well. But that's the fault of the fog, isn't it? All the same, there is not enough paint. Put a little more paint on, and I'm quite capable of buying the painting.
And Monet went home with the painting. Six years later, in 1879, as Monet's reputation was growing, the same baritone who was looking for new acquisitions visited Monet's studio and walked over to a painting on the easel.
"Ah, you have a rather pretty thing there, dear friend. A mist of clarity. The church, the turrets, the pavilions, the cornices of whiteness that pierce the cloud... the village, which we do not see, is reflected in the river... Do you want six hundred francs for it?"
And Monet's response came:
"So you have forgotten that you refused me 50 francs six years ago. Well, today I'll tell you something. Not only will you not get it for 50 francs, nor for 600 francs, but if you offered me 50,000 francs, you wouldn't get it either.
And the artist never agreed to part with his painting. He was 33 at the time. Later, he hung it in his studio in Giverny.
This anecdote was told by Claude Monet's great friend, Georges Clémenceau. As for the painting, it's "Vétheuil dans le brouillard" (Musée Marmottan), which illustrates this article.
