This documentary is not a simple biography, but rather a study, carried out in the company of a few specialists, around themes that are common to the life and work of this strange and tetchy character. Water: watercolours, seascapes. Fire: yellow and red, fire, the industrial era. Land: English, French and Italian landscapes, the legacy of Claude Lorrain, the desert. Air: clouds, the dissolution of forms, the temptation of nirvana. Secrets: the double character, eroticism, absolute freedom. Travel: a jealous solitude, discovering the world. Inventions: the new techniques of watercolour, the portable studio, the folly of varnishing.