I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any regime except the regime of liberty.'

The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

Fine art is knowledge made visible.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it.

Beauty lies in nature and reveals, once the artist has perceived it, its own expressive power.

France is the only nation in which astoundingly small numbers of civilized patrons reside.

I have never seen an angel. Show me an angel, and I'll paint one.