Chapter 8, Part 1 Summary

Christine throws herself into housekeeping to make their small studio livable. Jacques is constantly in the way and Christine is increasingly under a great deal of nervous tension. Claude is once again under the spell of Paris, sketching and planning a series of great works that he never seems to get started. He senses that the art climate in Paris is changing, noting that Delacroix had died without students and Courbet was followed by only a few clumsy imitators. Claude begins believing in his own genius, and for the next three years he struggles but never weakens from his conviction that he is right. He goes out, even in the snow, and paints which complicates his task immeasurably. Hailed by his friends as a masterpiece, his snow scene with two ragged urchins eating stolen apples is nevertheless rejected by the Salon...