One of my most curious paintings is of the Montegut family. I started it in 1798, and it contained eight people in the family. The five children were on the left, done on one canvas, and the mom, dad, and youngest daughter were on the right, done on a second canvas. I spliced the two canvases together. Years later, someone had an aunt added into the picture! It's a good thing that I was already dead, or I would have been very angry! I also did portraits of Bishop Penalver, many Spanish military leader, and even Almonaster. I enjoyed making portraits of famous people. I talked to them as I painted. Almonaster told me that he wanted New Orleans to become one of the most beautiful cities in the world and to become well-known. The hardest part of my profession was satisfying the people in the portraits. Some were pretty ugly, and I had to make them look good. Retold by Andrew M., 4th Grade