-
When I look at nature I feel as if I'll be able to paint it all, note it all down, and then you might as well forget it once you're working.
Claude Monet -
I despise the opinion of the press and the so-called critics.
Claude Monet
-
A good impression is lost so quickly.
Claude Monet -
For almost two months now I've been struggling away with no result.
Claude Monet -
It's the hardest thing to be alone in being satisfied with what one's done.
Claude Monet -
One can do something if one can see and understand it.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet
-
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.
Claude Monet -
To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet -
My eyes were finally opened and I understood nature. I learned at the same time to love it.
Claude Monet -
I can only draw what I see.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet
-
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.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet -
What I need most of all is color, always, always.
Claude Monet -
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!
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet -
Most people think I paint fast. I paint very slowly.
Claude Monet
-
I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home.
Claude Monet -
It is better to have done something than to have been someone.
Claude Monet -
My work is always better when I am alone and follow my own impressions.
Claude Monet -
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.
Claude Monet