Pierre-Auguste Renoir Quotes

One morning, one of us ran out of the black, it was the birth of Impressionism.

Everybody has their reasons.

I look at a nude. There are myriads of tiny tints. I must find the ones that will make the flesh on my canvas live and quiver.

It's with my brush that I make love.

Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

Shall I tell you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it must be indescribable, and second, it must be inimitable.

A painter who has the feel of breasts and buttocks is saved.

There are some things in painting which cannot be explained, and that something is essential.

And if out of a million visitors there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums.

"The work of art must seize upon you...carry you away."

The pain passes, but the beauty remains.

I had wrung impressionism dry and I finally came to the conclusion that I know neither how to paint nor how to draw.

An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.

To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.

There are quite enough unpleasant things in life without the need to manufacture more.

An artist must eat sparingly and give up a normal way of life.

The only reward one should offer an artist is to buy his work.

Nothing costs so little, goes so far, and accomplishes so much as a single act of merciful service.

If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a model, your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves; but Nature offers you millions, all on the same tree. No two leaves are exactly the same. The artist who paints only what is in his mind must very soon repeat himself.

The purpose of painting is to decorate the walls. Therefore it has to be as rich as possible

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.

I have a predilection for painting that lends joyousness to a wall.

The modern architect is, generally speaking, art's greatest enemy.

Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character.

There isn't a single person or landscape or subject which doesn't possess some interest, although it may not be immediately apparent. When a painter discovers this hidden treasure, other people are immediately struck by its beauty.

If the painter works directly from nature, he ultimately looks for nothing but momentary effects; he does not try to compose, and soon he gets monotonous.

I've never let one day go by without painting, or at least without drawing.

In a few generations you can breed a racehorse. The recipe for making a man like Delacroix is less well known.

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all happiness.

One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity.

When I've painted a woman's bottom so that I want to touch it, then [the painting] is finished.

You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.

My concern has always been to paint nudes as if they were some splendid fruit.

It is after you have lost your teeth that you can afford to buy steaks.

Be a good craftsman; it won't stop you from being a genius.

I just keep painting till I feel like pinching. Then I know it's right.

People love to be nice, but you must give them the chance.

I consider that women who are authors, lawyers, and politicians are monsters.

We are in a period of searchers rather than of creators.

With a limited palette, the older painters could do just as well as today what they did was sounder.

In painting, as in the other arts, there's not a single process, no matter how insignificant, which can be reasonably made into a formula. You come to nature with your theories, and she knocks them all flat.

There are two indices of genuine art: it is inimitable and it is ineffable.

What is to be done about these literary people, who will never understand that painting is a craft and that the material side comes first? The ideas come afterwards, when the picture is finished.

The simplest subjects are the immortal ones.