Claude Monet Quotes
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Take clear water with grass waving at the bottom. It's wonderful to look at, but to try to paint it is enough to make one insane.
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Lots of people will protest that it's quite unreal and that I'm out of my mind, but that's just too bad.
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One is too taken up with all that one sees and hears in Paris, however strong one is, and what I do here [in Etretat] will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I believe so, because it will simply be the expression of what I, and only I, have felt.
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To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.
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I can only draw what I see.
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I'm getting so slow at my work it makes me despair, but... I'm increasingly obsessed by the need to render what I experience, and I'm praying that I'll have a few more good years left to me.
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I despise the opinion of the press and the so-called critics.
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My eyes were finally opened and I understood nature. I learned at the same time to love it.
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A good impression is lost so quickly.
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I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found - the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than the impossible.
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I still don't know where I am going to sleep tomorrow.
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One can do something if one can see and understand it.
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It took me time to understand my water lilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them.
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One day I am satisfied, the next day I find it all bad; still I hope that some day I will find some of them good.
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It was at home I learned the little I know. Schools always appeared to me like a prison, and never could I make up my mind to stay there, not even for four hours a day, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was joy to run about the cliffs in the free air, or to paddle in the water.
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My work is always better when I am alone and follow my own impressions.
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It goes without saying that I will do anything at any price to pull myself out of a situation like this [rejection] so that I can start work immediately on my next Salon picture and ensure that such a thing should not happen again.
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It is better to have done something than to have been someone.
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Most people think I paint fast. I paint very slowly.
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I'm in a foul mood as I'm making stupid mistakes... This morning I lost beyond repair a painting with which I had been happy, having done about twenty sessions on it; it had to be thoroughly scraped away... what a rage I was in!
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I'm knocked out, I've never felt so physically and mentally exhausted, I'm quite stupid with it and long only for bed; but I am happy.
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I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home.
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What I need most of all is color, always, always.
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I'm going to get down to a still life on a size 50 canvas of rayfish and dogfish with old fishermen's baskets. Then I'm going to turn out a few pictures to send wherever possible, given that now, first and foremost - unfortunately - I have to earn some money.