[Photography is] in some ways false just because it is so exact.

All painting worth its name, unless one is talking about black and white, must include the idea of color as one of its necessary supports, in the same way that it includes chiaroscuro, proportion, and perspective.

Even when we look at nature, our imagination constructs the picture.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything.

Real beauty in the arts is eternal and would be accepted at all periods; but it wears the dress of its century: something of that dress clings to it, and woe to the works which appear in periods when the general taste is corrupted.

The contour should come last, only a very experienced eye can place it rightly.

The first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eyes.