He occasionally visited his aunt, Madame Lisa Quenu, but
revolted against her complete indifference to art, and her middle-class
selfishness. Le Ventre de Paris.
He was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had
charge of Pauline Quenu's fortune. La Joie de Vivre.
He established himself in a studio near the roof of an old house close
to the river, and there lived the life of a Bohemian, with an absolute
disdain for everything not related to art. He revolted against the
canons of the schools, and tried to achieve truth in painting by
adopting an exaggerated realism. His hopes became centred in a large
painting, which he called _Plein Air_, intended for exhibition in the
_Salon_. The picture was rejected, and when shown at a minor exhibition
was greeted with derision by the public. About this period began his
connection with Christine Hallegrain, with whom he lived for several
years, and ultimately married. They took up house at Bennecourt in an
old cottage, and there some years passed happily enough, a son
named Jacques Louis being born in 1860. But Claude gradually became
discontented, and the family returned to Paris, where there began a long
struggle against poverty, a struggle beginning in high anticipation and
ending in despair.
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