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In painting his ideal peasants Millet yielded as freely to his impressions as did Manet in painting his bull-fighters.

From one point of view the difference is one of degree rather than of kind, namely, the degree to which the painter lets his impressions sink in and become a part of him.

Monet attempted to paint light exactly as he saw it, reducing the personal equation—that is, himself—to the lowest possible significance. Turner painted light as he saw and imagined it; he allowed his impressions to sink in, to become a part of him, then he created a picture. And his pictures vary greatly in the proportion of observation to imagination; in some he painted almost as direct and as coldly from nature as Monet, in others he barely used his observations as groundwork upon which to let his imagination run riot.

It is not strange that so erratic, so eccentric a genius bewildered the public and the critics of his day, for in the painting of light he was a generation ahead of his time, and in the attempt to paint pure color harmonies he was two generations ahead.