No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting above all else.
Edouard ManetRead
There is only one true thing: instantly paint what you see. When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again. All the rest is humbug.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of capturing reality in art and the relentless effort an artist must make to perfect their craft.
Edouard Manet's quote highlights the essential principle of painting: to depict what one directly observes in a sincere and immediate manner. It suggests that true mastery comes from the act of creation and the willingness to start over when one's vision is not accurately realized. The term 'humbug' implies that anything that deviates from this pure expression lacks value.
In practice
An artist may reference this quote when discussing their painting process during an art class.
No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting above all else.
There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.
There is only one true thing: Instantly paint what you see.
I paint what I see and not what others like to see.
Concision in art is a necessity and an elegance. The verbose painter bores: who will get rid of all these trimmings?
The complete novelist would come into the world with a catalog of qualities like this. He would own the concentration of a Trappist monk, the organizational ability of a Prussian field marshal, the insight into human relations of a Viennese psychologist, the discipline of a man who prints the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin, the exquisite sense of timing of an Olympic gymnast, and by the way, a natural instinct and flair for exceptional use of language.
You must talk to me, Caravaggio. Or am I just a book? Something to be read, some creature to be tempted out of a loch and shot full of morphine, full of corridors, lies, loose vegetation, pockets of stones.
When I design buildings, I think of the overall composition, much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that, I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space.
With the pride of the artist, you must blow against the walls of every power that exists the small trumpet of your defiance.
I wrote poetry from the time I could write. That was the only way I could begin to express who I was but the poems didn't make sense to my teachers. They didn't rhyme. They were about the wind sounds, the planets' motions, never about who I was or how I felt. I didn't think I felt anything. I was this mind more than a body or a heart. My mind photographing the stars, hearing the wind.
l photograph what l do not wish to paint and l paint that which l cannot photograph.
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