Not only La
Blache, but Garcia and his incomparable daughters, Marie Malibran and
Pauline Viardot, and, after they left, Baroilhet, the opera-singer, had
rooms in the house. The handsome boy was constantly with them, and this
early and long and intimate association with Art gave him elegance and
grace and vivacity. The seeds sown during such intercourse may for years
lie buried beneath the cares and thoughts of a laborious life, and yet
grow and bring forth fruit as soon as a more propitious atmosphere
environs them. Comrades in the office where he wrote likewise had
influence upon his career. He found among the clerks two brothers,
Pierre and Emile Bisson, gentlemen who have now attained reputation by
their admirable photographic landscapes, especially of Alpine scenery.
They were then as poor and as uneducated as Henry Murger. They lived in
a house inhabited by several painters, from whom they caught a love and
some knowledge of Art. They communicated the contagion to their new
comrade, and the moment office-hours were over all three hastened, as
fast as they could go, to the nearest public drawing-school. All three
aspired to the fame of Rubens and of Paul Veronese.
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