"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at."
"By the single example of this painter devoted to his art with such independence, my destiny as a painter opened out to me."
Source: Claude Monet (1982). “Claude Monet”, Harry N Abrams Inc
About the author
Claude Monet
Painter
Claude Monet was a French painter and a founder of Impressionism, known for his vivid depictions of light and color in nature.
All quotes by Claude Monet →Same author
More quotes by Claude Monet
"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
"I must have flowers, always, and always."
"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly."
"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, house, a field....Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you."
"Paint what you really see, not what you think you ought to see; not the object isolated as in a test tube, but the object enveloped in sunlight and atmosphere, with the blue dome of Heaven reflected in the shadows."