“[.. that he] would not touch the painting, nor finish it unless the claimant pays him the balance due or guarantees it by giving a security.”

from a notary document, 1654 (location: RD, 1654/5, 310); as quoted in Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama, Alfred A. Knopf, Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 569 - note 7
Rembrandt is rejecting the demand of the Portuguese Jewish merchant Diego d'Andrade, who rejected in 1654 the portray of his daughter which Rembrandt was painting, as "showing no resemblance at all to the head of the young daughter". D'Andrade demanded that Rembrandt immediately take up his brushes and finish the work to his satisfaction
1640 - 1670

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 "[.. that he] would not touch the painting, nor finish it unless the claimant pays him the balance due or guarantees it …" by Rembrandt van Rijn?
Rembrandt van Rijn photo
Rembrandt van Rijn 23
Dutch 17th century painter and etcher 1606–1669

Related quotes

John F. Kennedy photo
J.M.W. Turner photo

“My dear Chantrey, - I intended long before this (but you will say, Fudge) to have written: but even now very little information have I to give you in matters of Art, for I have confined myself to the painting department at Corso; and having finished one, am about the second, and getting on with Lord E.'s, which I began the very first touch at Rome; but as the folk here talked that I would show them not, I finished a small three feet four [painting] to stop their gabbling..”

J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker

Quote in Turner's letter from Rome, 6 Nov. 1828, to his friend Francis Chantrey; as cited in The Life of J. M. W. Turner R.A. , Walter Thornbury - A new Edition, Revised https://ia601807.us.archive.org/24/items/gri_33125004491185/gri_33125004491185.pdf; London Chatto & Windus, 1897, p. 10
1821 - 1851

Georges Braque photo

“It is the act of painting, not the finished painting.”

Georges Braque (1882–1963) French painter and sculptor

1946 - 1963, interview with John Richardson' (1957)

Jonathan Swift photo
Agnolo Firenzuola photo

“He who would ease the pain of his wound, should pay his doctor well. Isn’t it so, Doctor? And he who would be cured should pay him badly.”

Agnolo Firenzuola (1493–1543) Italian poet and litterateur

Act V., Scene II. — (Cornelio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 274.
I Lucidi (published 1549)

Rembrandt van Rijn photo

“A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished.”

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) Dutch 17th century painter and etcher

Statement attributed to Rembrandt in early biographies, as quoted in The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France (2003), by Alison MacQueen
One of the popular aphorisms about Rembrandt's paintings, drawn from his early biographies in early 19th century and repeatedly attributed to the artist by the French writers and artist, Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France, 2003,p. 287 https://books.google.nl/books?id=N0dVqAsR5k0C&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=The+Rise+of+the+Cult+of+Rembrandt:+Reinventing+an+Old+Master+in+Nineteenth-century+France&source=bl&ots=SgL2TN2Xct&sig=ZJuOkH35vmifBkzcu5ASLdLyhTI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjx17OkrpfVAhWKnBoKHQlxA0oQ6AEIVzAJ#v=onepage&q=The%20Rise%20of%20the%20Cult%20of%20Rembrandt%3A%20Reinventing%20an%20Old%20Master%20in%20Nineteenth-century%20France&f=false/The
undated quotes

Charles Dickens photo
John Berger photo

“What any true painting touches is an absence - an absence of which without the painting, we might be unaware. And that would be our loss.”

John Berger (1926–2017) British painter, writer and art critic

Source: The Shape of a Pocket

Edouard Manet photo

“He has no talent at all, that boy! You, who are his friend, tell him please to give up painting.”

Edouard Manet (1832–1883) French painter

spoken to Claude Monet about Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1874), as quoted by John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, Vol.1 (1961).
1850 - 1875

Jacob Maris photo

“On the other hand, I am accused of not finishing my paintings, no matter how much time I spent to my airs. Well, 'finished' in the common sense of the word, they are certainly not! Finishing in that sense would drag the life out of it.”

Jacob Maris (1837–1899) Dutch painter

translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jacob Maris, in het Nederlands: Daarentegen wordt mij verweten dat mijn schilderijen niet af zijn, hoe ik mijn lucht ook doorwerkt heb. Nu, 'af' in de gewone beteekenis van het woord is mijn werk zeker niet. Door in dien zin het af te maken, zou ik er het leven uithalen.
in Jacob Maris (1837-1899), M. van Heteren and others; as cited in 'Ik denk in mijn materie', in exhibition catalog of Teylers Museum / Museum Jan Cunen), Zwolle 2003, p. 76

Related topics