“One must be of one's time and paint what one sees.”

— Edouard Manet

As quoted in Encyclopedia of Artists (2000) by William Vaughan and Christopher Ackroyd, p. 28
1876 - 1883

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "One must be of one's time and paint what one sees." by Edouard Manet?

Edouard Manet 29

French painter 1832–1883

Related quotes

“A painting is finished when one can see what it represents.”

Jacob Maris (1837–1899) Dutch painter

translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jacob Maris, in het Nederlands: Een schilderij is af als men zien kan wat het voorstelt.
as cited by G.H. Marius, in 'Jacob Maris', in Het Schildersboek. Nederlandsche Schilders der Negentiende eeuw, Amsterdam 1898, p. 11

“People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

“But in good time you'll see that sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter I-V, Chapter II.

“We must see that all places, times and conscious organisms are equally "this one."”

Arnold Zuboff (1946) American philosopher

For a failure to see this must distort our view by forcing us to accommodate in it what seems to be our own special objective status; and that awkward accommodation must then ruin any prospect of discovering the truly objective universal principles that govern the world.
" An Introduction to Universalism http://nsl.com/misc/zuboff/zuboff1.htm" p. 9

“The point is that one sees things at different moments with different eyes. Differently in the morning then in the evening. The way in which one sees also depends on one's mood…. coming in from a dark bedroom in the morning into the sitting room one will, for example, see everything in a bluish light. Even the deepest shadows are topped with bright light. After a while one will accustom oneself to the light and the shadows will be deeper and everything will be seen more sharply. If an atmosphere of this kind is being painted it won't do merely to sit and gaze at everything 'just as one sees'. One must paint precisely the fleeting moment of significance – one must capture the exact experience separating that significant moment from the next – the exact moment when the motif struck one… In some circumstances a chair may seem to be just as interesting as a human being. In some way or another it must have caught the interest in which case the onlooker's interest must somehow be engaged in the same way. It's not the chair that should be painted, but what the person has felt at the sight of it [written in Saint Cloud, 1890 - probably related to the chair of Vincent van Gogh”

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker

Quote of Munch from: T 2770, (1890); as cited in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 83-84
1880 - 1895

“To defend painting: One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is pure idiocy.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

Source: undated quotes, The Daily Practice of Painting, Writings (1962-1993), p. 78

“Don't be afraid of putting on color, refine the work little by little. Don't proceed according to rules and principles, but paint what you observe and feel... One must have only one master – nature; she is the one always be consulted.”

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) French painter

1890's

“I have just finished one painting and am already at work on the preliminary drawings for the next one. I must do something in order to get rid of such habits or I won't manage to find time for any vacation. I have had this new painting in my mind since January, and must get it down on canvas.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

Quote from his letter to Freundlich, 15 July 15, 1938; as cited in Kandinsky in Paris: 1934-1944 - exhibition catalog, published by The Solomon K. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1985, p. 27
1930 - 1944

“Undoubtedly I had lost time in balking at scales, arpeggios. […] There is an advantage in establishing the top story of one's constructions first: One has seen the heights; one knows what one is building for and what must be sustained.”

Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999) American violinist and conductor

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin

“One must be of one's time and paint what one sees.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Edouard Manet 29

Related quotes

Related topics