Although he met Paul Cézanne, who became a close friend of his, at the Académie Suisse in Paris in 1861, he rejected his style. Indeed, for his nudes and landscapes, he preferred to use thick material. For John Rewald, Emperaire, "was able to loop out of Cézanne's influence, and his work denotes a surprising personality and a most peculiar strand". He had a passion for Titian and Édouard Manet. Cézanne once said, "Well, he didn't make it. Still, he was a lot more of a painter than all those dripping with medals and honours".