five in the morning
The second year Claude sought a contrast . He selected a bit of the public garden of Batignolles in May ; in the background were some large chestnut trees casting their shade around a corner of greensward and several six-storied houses ; while in front , on a seat of a crude green hue , some nurses and petty cits of the neighbourhood sat in a line watching three little girls making sand pies . When permission to paint there had been obtained , he had needed some heroism to bring his work to a successful issue amid the bantering crowd . At last he made up his mind to go there at five in the morning , in order to paint in the background ; reserving the figures , he contented himself with making mere sketches of them from nature , and finishing them in his studio . This time his picture seemed to him less crude ; it had acquired some of the wan , softened light which descended through the glass roof . He thought his picture accepted , for all his friends pronounced it to be a masterpiece , and went about saying that it would revolutionise the Salon . There was stupefaction and indignation when a fresh refusal of the hanging committee was rumoured .