A portrait is a picture in which there is just a tiny little something not quite right about the mouth.

An artist painting a picture should have at his side a man with a club to hit him over the head when the picture is finished.

Impressionism' was the name given to a certain form of observation when Monet, not content with using his eyes to see what things were or what they looked like as everybody had done before him, turned his attention to noting what took place on his own retina (as an oculist would test his own vision).

It is certain that at certain times talent entirely overcomes thought or poetry.

You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.

The habit of breaking up one's colour to make it brilliant dates from further back than Impressionism - Couture advocates it in a little book called 'Causeries d'Atelier' written about 1860 - it is part of the technique of Impressionism but used for quite a different reason.

Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents.