Friesz trained initially with Charles Lhuillier at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Le Havre, then at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in the studio of Léon Bonnat. At the start of his career, he shared his friend Raoul Dufy's admiration for the Impressionists. His 1901 encounters with Armand Guillaumin and then Camille Pissaro were fundamentally important and led to a major turning point in his career, one which led him to claim Fauvism as his inspiration. The influence of Guillaumin can be clearly seen in his use of colour, and that of Pissaro allowed him to combine the Impressionist heritage with Cézanne-style construction. In autumn 1907, he was profoundly affected by the events organised in tribute to Cézanne, who had recently died, and he abandoned the excess colours and sinuous lines of Fauvism. Friesz was in Rouen during the summer of 1908 and dedicated several canvases to Rouen Cathedral; to produce these, he used the same viewpoint as that used by Pissarro in 1896. The muted colours and geometrisation of forms undeniably denote the influence of Cubism. Although he recognised his debt towards the movement's historic founders, particularly Braque, he distanced himself from Cubism to construct his own personal language in which his freedom of expression could develop to the full.