“Do you see that corner of canvas there [of his painting 'La Ferme'], large as the hand, does it not seem to you that it far surpasses in intensity, in clearness, in expression, the rest of the canvas? [Sensier confirmed]. Well, then, all the rest must pass under the control of that little centre; all that which surrounds it submit itself to that diapason of light and the whole of the picture be as charged with life as that which you see there. Must we not incessantly lift ourselves, surpass ourselves, in this terrible profession of painter?”
quote from a talk with Alfred Sensier, c. 1865; as cited in Barbizon days, Millet-Corot-Rousseau-Barye by Charles Sprague Smith, A. Wessels Company, New York, July 1902, pp. 159-60
the quote is pointing to his painting 'The Farm / La Ferme', upon which Rousseau had worked for years
1851 - 1867
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Théodore Rousseau 14
French painter (1812-1867) 1812–1867Related quotes
“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.”
1941 - 1967
Source: Three Hundred Years of American Painting, Alexander Eliot; New York: Time Inc., 1957, p. 298
“A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.”
Addressing an audience at Carnegie Hall, as quoted in The New York Times (11 May 1967); often this is quoted without the humorous final sentence.
Context: A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence.
Notes, 1964-65; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Photo-paintings' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/subjects-2/photo-paintings-12
1960's
Source: Towards Evening (1889), p. 93
“You must be painter who takes a canvas and does what he likes with it.”
Encountering Directors interview (1969)
Context: You must be painter who takes a canvas and does what he likes with it. We are more like painters in past centuries who were ordered to paint frescoes to specific measurements. Among the people in the fresco may be a bishop, the prince's wife, etc. The fresco isn't bad simply because the painter used for models people from the court of the prince who ordered and paid for it.
Lady Lytton, in Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh. http://www.explore-parliament.net/nssMovies/05/0558/0558_.htm.
Hudson Review, The, Summer 2002 by Allen, Brooke, - More than the sum of his parts: The enigma of Winston Churchill http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4021/is_/ai_n9129028.