Claude Monet

“The point is not to paint life, but to make painting alive.”

“I follow nature without being able to grasp her.”

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”

“The light changes constantly, and only the artist can capture it.”

“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand.”

“I'm not performing miracles, I'm using up a lot of paint.”

“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.”

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.”

“My life has been nothing but a failure.”

“In Paris one is too preoccupied by what one sees and what one hears, however strong one is; what I am doing here has, I think, the merit of not resembling anyone, because it is simply the expression of what I myself have experienced. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille from Etretat , December 1868; as cited in: Mary Tompkins Lewis (2007) Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post”

“One is too taken up with all that one sees and hears in Paris, however strong one is, and what I do here will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I believe so, because it will simply be the expression of what I, and only I have felt. The further I get, the more I regret how little I know, that's what hinders me the most.. .I don't think I will spend much time in Paris now, a month at the very most, each year. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille ; as quoted in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 31.”

“There at the moment in Honfleur .. . Boudin and Jongkind are here; we get on marvelously. There's lots to be learned and nature begins to grow beautiful.. .I shall tell you I'm sending a flower picture to the exhibition at Rouen; there are very beautiful flowers at present. in a letter to Frédéric Bazille ; as cited in: Edward B. Henning, Cleveland Museum of Art. Creativity in art and science, 1860”

“It seems to me, when I see nature, that I see it ready made, completely written”

“It is beautiful here [in Etretat , Normandy], my friend; every day I discover even more beautiful things. It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all”

“By way of news, I can tell you that Couture , that bad”

“'..learn to draw: that's where most of you [Troyon's pupils] are falling down today.. ..draw with all your might; you can never learn too much. However, don’t neglect painting, go to the country from time to time and make studies and above all develop them..' [Monet is quoting in his letter Troyon , a friend of Boudin in Paris] in a letter to Eugène Boudin , 1859; as quoted in Discovering Art,”

“Monet wrote Boudin this letter just after he visited the 1859 Salon .”

“Among Troyon 's paintings there are two huge ones; Return to the Farm is marvelous with its beautiful stormy sky. There is much windy motion in the clouds, and the cows and dogs are very good. In Going to the Market you see the mist at sunrise. It's superb and, most of all, very luminous. The wide space in View from Surennes is amazing. You feel you are really in the countryside. 1859 letter to Eugène Boudin , June 3, 1859; as cited in Rodolphe Rapetti (1990) Monet, p. 11”

“I am surrounded by a small group of young landscapists who will be very happy get to know you. Besides, they are real painters... I find myself very well fixed here. I am drawing figures at hard. And at the Academy , there are only landscapists. They begin to perceive that it's a good thing. Quote of Monet, 1859 in a letter to his mentor Eugène Boudin ; as cited in: John Rewald (1961) The History of Impressionism”