Wednesday, 29 January 1879

All day long I think of a blue sea, white sails, a sky all of light...
On returning from the studio I find Potechine. This old stick says that in a week he is going to Rome, and in conversation mentions Katorbinsky, my teacher, and others... And I feel myself swoon at this prospect of sun, of old marble amid greenery; ruins and statues, churches. La campagna!
That wilderness — yes, but I adore that wilderness, and thank God there are others who adore it too. That divine, artistic atmosphere. That light — which when I think of it makes me weep with rage at being here. I know painters there!

Notes

La campagna — in Italian in the original: the Roman Campagna, the ancient countryside surrounding Rome celebrated by painters for its ruins and luminous atmosphere.