Even when we look at nature, our imagination constructs the picture.
If I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for her.
Glory to that Homer of painting, to that father of warmth and enthusiasm... he really paints men.
Cold exactitude is not art; ingenious artifice, when it pleases or when it expresses, is art itself.
The contour should come last, only a very experienced eye can place it rightly.
The things one experiences alone with oneself are very much stronger and purer.