A reflection of his anarchism
On his similarity to peasants...
Rouen, November 20, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...]Remember that I have the temperament of a peasant, I am melancholy, harsh and savage in my works, it is only in the long run that I can expect to please, and then only those who have a grain of indulgence; but the eye of the passerby is too hasty and sees only the surface. Whoever is in a hurry will not stop for me.
On the bourgeoisie...
Osny, December 28, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...]There is not more time for amusements, you are right, education is what is necessary. See, then, how stupid the bourgeoisie, the real bourgeoisie have become, step by step they go lower and lower, in a word they are losing all notion of beauty, they are mistaken about everything. Where there is something to admire they shout it down, they disapprove! Where there are stupid sentimentalities from which you want to turn with disgust, they jump with joy or swoon.-Everything they have admired for the last fifty years is now forgotten, old-fashioned, ridiculous.[...] They are like the falling, rolling rock which we must ceaselessly roll back in order to escape being crushed.
On politics in general...
Paris, July, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...]
Unhappily the political future is not rosy, as you can see for youself. From England you are able to see the totality of facts in a better perspective. Clearly it is not the socialists who are dominating events, but the Orleanists and Bonapartists with their usual intrigues - and hence, the capitalists. [...] I think that these developments will favor the republicans, let us hope so in any case. In the meantime artists will have to endure these circumstances.
On Louise Michel...
("Louise Michel, a famous revolutionary, sentenced to lifelong exile in New Caledonia after the Commune, pardoned in 1880, had just been arraigned for having incited unemployed workers to pillage. In court she declared: "I live only for the revolution. I will always work for it. It is the revolution I salute." " - Rewald, 39)
Osny, July 25, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...]Please read the defense of Louise Michel. It is really remarkable. This woman is extraordinary. She renders ridicule harmless by the force of her feeling and humanity.
On Clemenceau...
("Clemenceau, a socialist deputy from Montmartre, had just delivered a speech in the Chamber of Deputies in "defense of the Republic against the old regime, advocating the emancipation of the worker, which would lead to his education and development, supply him with tools for work, and give him in his turn a place in the sun." - Rewald, 36)
Osny, July 5, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...] In your last letter you asked me to inform you abou the views of Clemenceau, and thus clear up a discussion you had. My dear boy, it is naive to bet on any man in the Chamber, if you have ever done that. - You were both right. This would seem to be a joke, but no, it is the plain fact. - You were right in a way since Clemenceau did indeed come before the elctorate with a very advanced, even a socialist program, but this does not make Alfred wrong in characterizing Clemenceau as a Jacobin, a "deep-dyed" - to qutoe Le Figaro - radical, but nevertheless no socialist. That is to say he is a politician who wants to come to power on the basis of a progressive program . Don't trust even his radicalism, he is a sort of Gladstone,-he isn't worth much. Moreover, if you read the article "Revision" in the copy of Le Proletaire which I am sending you, you will see what we think of him and of all the celebrated republicans who promised so much; but don't worry, they give little.
[...]
On the commercialization of art...
Rouen, October 22, 1883
My dear Lucien,
[...]Ideas stemming from impotence, for an artist should have only his ideal in mind.-He lives poorly, yes, but in his misery one hope sustains him, the hope of finding someone who can understand him; in three of four cases he finds hi man.-I know perfectly well that tricksters, tricksters with real energy, heap up fortunes, but either they pass by like clouds, or they know they are inferior, and feel degraded. Of course this is a question of temperament.-Anyhow, M.told me before he left that he would try color division, soft tones, etc., but he would add "beautiful" motifs. We have all heard that before, it makes me think of V., they are all the same, they want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.