"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at."
"I know well enough in advance that you'll find my paintings perfect. I know that if they are exhibited they'll be a great success, but I couldn't be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad, I'm certain of it."
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Source: Claude Monet (1999). “Monet by himself: paintings, drawings, pastels, letters”
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"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
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"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."