Claude Monet Quotes
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I see less and less.. .I need to avoid lateral light, which darkens my colors. Nevertheless, I always paint at the times of day most propitious for me, as long as my paint tubes and brushes are not mixed up.. ..I will paint almost blind, as Beethoven composed completely deaf.
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..but what a pity that I did not come here in Venice when I was younger and more adventurous.
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Listening only to my instincts, I discovered superb things.
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I want the unobtainable. Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that's the end. They are finished. I want to paint the air which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the beauty of the air in which these objects are located, and that is nothing short of impossible.
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These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. It's quite beyond my powers at my age, and yet I want to succeed in expressing what I feel.
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'..learn to draw: that's where most of you Troyon's pupils are falling down today.. ..draw with all your might; you can never learn to much. However, don’t neglect painting, go to the country from time to time and make studies and above all develop them..' Monet is quoting in his letter Troyon, a friend of Boudin in Paris
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It is difficult to stop in time because one gets carried away. But I have that strength; it is the only strength I have.
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I never draw except with brush and paint.
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Zaandam has enough to paint for a lifetime.
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I'm quite content: although what I'm doing is far from being as I should like, I am complemented often enough all the same.
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I'm half an hour late, I'll come back tomorrow.
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It's enough to drive you crazy, trying to depict the weather, the atmosphere, the ambience.
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For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at any moment.
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Despite my extremely modest prices, dealers and art lovers are turning their backs on me. It is very depressing to see the lack of interest shown in an art object which has no market value.
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One day Eugène Boudin said to me, '..appreciate the sea, the light, the blue sky'. I took his advice and together we went on long outings during which I painted constantly from nature. This was how I came to understand nature and learned to love it passionately.
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The Thames was all gold. God it was beautiful, so fine that I began working a frenzy, following the sun and its reflections on the water.
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I am weary, having worked without a break all day; how beautiful it is here, to be sure, but how difficult to paint! I can see what I want to do quite clearly but I'm not there yet. It's so clear and pure in its pink and blues that the slightest misjudged stroke looks like a smudge of dirt.. .I have fourteen canvases underway.
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Impressionism is only direct sensation. All great painters were less or more impressionists. It is mainly a question of instinct, and much simpler than Sargent thinks. But he went on to agree that impressionists had noted how strong
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Despite my exhaustion I have a devil of a time getting to sleep because of the rats above my bed and a pig who lives beneath my room.
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I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel.
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In Paris one is too preoccupied by what one sees and what one hears, however strong one is; what I am doing here has, I think, the merit of not resembling anyone, because it is simply the expression of what I myself have experienced.
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As for myself, I met with as much success as I ever could have wanted. In other words, I was enthusiastically run-down by every critic of the period.
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I get madder and madder on giving back what I feel.
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I'm working hard with more determination than ever. My success at the Salon led to my selling several paintings and since your absence I have made 800 francs; I hope, when I have contracts with more dealers, it will be better still.