Vincent van Gogh on Education

"Gauguin... chose to live in Pont-Aven, a well-known resort of artists. There he took quarters... favored by the pupils of Cormon and Julian... The young painter Emile Bernard, who paid him a visit at Schuffenecker's suggestion... managed to see some of his paintings and noted that "small brushstrokes weave the color and remind me of Pissarro; there is not much style." ...Eventually he admitted two painters to intimacy, and a young Frenchman ...who discreetly paid Gauguin's bills. It was through these that the others... learned of his ideas, of his frequently expressed admiration for Degas and Pissarro, of technical questions which preoccupied him and of his search... to preserve the intensity of colors. ...he boldness of his approach left a deep impression on them ...When they returned to Paris ...the pupils of Cormon communicated their new experiences to their fellow students, who had already grieved their teacher... by their lively interest in Seurat's theories. Cormon had even temporarily closed his classes in protest at their revolutionary experiments... One of his pupils, Vincent van Gogh, thereupon had decided not to return... but to work on his own."