"My dearest little Julie, I love you as I lie dying; I shall still love you when I am dead. I beg of you, do not cry; this parting was inevitable. I would have liked to be with you until you married – Work hard and be good as you have always been; you have never caused me a moment's sorrow in you little life . You have beauty, good fortune; use them well. I think the best thing would be to live with your cousins in the Rue de Villejust, but I do not wish to force you to do anything. Give a memento of me to you aunt Edma , and to your cousins too; and give Monet's 'Bateaux en reparation' to your cousin Gabriel. Tell M. Degas that if he found a museum he is to choose a Manet . A keepsake for Monet; one for Renoir, and one of my drawings for Bartolomé. Give something to the two concierges. Do not cry, I love you more than I can tell you."

“Music and painting should never be literary, a very subtle distinction according to Renoir. As soon as I try to represent an individual, their physiognomy and attitudes, I become a literary artist.”

“He is a subtle and brilliant draughtsman.. ..all these preliminary drawings would astonish the public who obviously imagine the 'Impressionists' work at tremendous speed. I don't believe one can go further than this in the study of form in a drawing. I am charmed by his 'Nude Bathers' quite as much as those by Ingres. He tells me that he thinks the nude is absolutely indispensable as an art form.”

“I do not think any man would ever treat a woman as his equal, and it is all I ask because I know my worth.”

“Your phrase: 'I am working hard at growing old', is absolutely me. What if you were always to speak in my place..”

“I say, 'I should like to die', but that's not true at all, I should like to get younger.. ..youth and old age are similar in more ways than one, and they are the two moments in life when one can feel one's own soul which would be a proof that it exists.”

“The tall fellow Bazille has done something I find quite fine: a young girl in a very light dress in the shadow of a tree beyond which one sees a town. There is a good deal of light, sunlight, He is trying to do what we have so often tried to bring off: to paint a figure in the open air. This time I think he has succeed.”