“The study of nature is of no significance, for painting is a conventional art, and it is infinitely more worthwhile to learn to draw after w:Holbein.”

— Edgar Degas

Quote from History of Impressionism, Rev. ed. John Rewald, Museum of Modern Art, 1961, p. 89
posthumous quotes, Degas Dance Drawing' (1935)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The study of nature is of no significance, for painting is a conventional art, and it is infinitely more worthwhile to …" by Edgar Degas?

Edgar Degas 67

French artist 1834–1917

Related quotes

“The great difficulty and crowning glory of art is to paint, to draw, to write, naturally and simply.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

RODIN, AUGUSTE. L'Art. Entretiens réunis par Paul Gsell, 1911

“Weissenbruch to Anton Mauve: He [ Vincent van Gogh ] is drawing damn well, I could paint after his studies.”

Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch (1824–1903) Dutch painter of the Hague School (1824-1903)

version in original Dutch, Weissenbruch tegen Anton Mauve: Hij teekent verdomd goed, ik zou naar zijn studies kunnen werken.
a remark to Anton Mauve, who asked Weissenbruch to visit Vincent van Gogh and see his work
Source: J. H. Weissenbruch', (n.d.), p. 44, note 1

“Personally I would like to have pupils, a studio, pass on my love to them, work with them, without teaching them anything... A convent, a monastery, a phalanstery of painting where one could train together.... but no program, no instruction in painting.... drawing is still alright, it doesn't count, but painting – the way to learn is to look at the masters, above all at nature, and to watch other people painting..”

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) French painter

Source: Quotes of Paul Cezanne, after 1900, Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations, (1897 - 1906), p. 124, in: 'What I know or have seen of his life'

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

“In every art we are always obliged to return to the accepted means of expression, the conventional language of the art. What is a black-and-white drawing but a convention to which the beholder has become so accustomed that with his mind's eye he sees a complete equivalent in the translation from nature?”

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) French painter

13 January 1857 (p. 334)
1831 - 1863, Delacroix' 'Journal' (1847 – 1863)

“If a man has not studied painting, or at any rate black and white drawing, his eyes are wild; learning to draw tames them. The first step towards taming the eyes is to teach them not to see too much.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Seeing
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part IX - A Painter's Views on Painting

“The more we study Art, the less we care for Nature.”

Oscar Wilde book Intentions

What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.
Intentions (1891)

“.. 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 to much. However, don't neglect painting, go to the country from time to time and make studies and above all develop them.”

Constant Troyon (1810–1865) French painter

quoted by Monet, in his letter to Boudin, 1859; as quoted in Discovering Art, – The life time and work of the World's greatest Artists, MONET; K.E. Sullivan, Brockhamptonpress, London 2004, p. 11
Monet is quoting in his letter Troyon, who was a good friend of his first art-teacher Eugène Boudin in Le Havre

“No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly," His Highness replied, "…and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji

Source: Tale of Genji, Ch. 17: Eawase (trans. Royall Tyler)
Source: The Tale of Genji

“Being an artist now means to question the nature of art. If one is questioning the nature of painting, one cannot be questioning the nature of art. If an artist accepts painting (or sculpture) he is accepting the tradition that goes with it. That’s because the word art is general and the word painting is specific. Painting is a kind of art. If you make paintings you are already accepting (not questioning) the nature of art. One is then accepting the nature of art to be the European tradition of a painting-sculpture dichotomy.”

Joseph Kosuth (1945) American conceptual artist

Joseph Kosuth in: Arthur R. Rose, “Four Interviews,” Arts Magazine (February, 1969).

“The study of nature is of no significance, for painting is a conventional art, and it is infinitely more worthwhile to learn to draw after w:Holbein.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Edgar Degas 67

Related quotes

Related topics