Once they witnessed one of his painting sold at auction for $100,000. And asked how you do it, he said, 'I feel as a horse must feel when the beautiful cup is given to the jockey.'
Edgar DegasA painting is above all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy. If, at a later stage, he wants to add two or three touches from nature, of course it doesn't spoil anything.
Edgar DegasNo art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.
Edgar DegasYou have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.
Edgar DegasOne must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement.
Edgar DegasThe artist does not draw what he sees, but what he must make others see. Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. A picture is first of all a product of the imagination of the artist; it must never be a copy. If then two or three natural accents can be added, obviously no harm is done. The air we see in the paintings of the old masters is never the air we breathe.
Edgar Degas