Pierre-Auguste Renoir Art Quotations

In painting, as in the other arts, there's not a single process, no matter how insignificant, which can be reasonably made into a formula. You come to nature with your theories, and she knocks them all flat.

Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art.

One can thus state, without fear of being wrong, that every truly artistic production has been conceived and executed according to the principle of irregularity.

To be an artist you must learn the laws of nature.

I have arrived more definitely than any other painter during his lifetime; honours shower upon me from every side; artists pay me compliments on my work; there are many people to whom my position must seem enviable ... But I don't seem to have a single real friend!

The artist who uses the least of what is called imagination will be the greatest.

The so-called 'discoveries' of the Impressionists could not have been unknown to the old masters; and if they made no use of them, it was because all great artists have renounced the use of effects. And in simplifying nature, they made it all the greater.

The modern architect is, generally speaking, art's greatest enemy.

You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.

There are two indices of genuine art: it is inimitable and it is ineffable.

How is it that in the so-called barbarian ages art was understood, whereas in our age of progress exactly the opposite is true?

An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.

to express himself well, the artist should be hidden... The trouble is that if an artist knows he has genius, he's done for. The only salvation is to work like a labourer, and not have delusions of grandeur.

"The work of art must seize upon you...carry you away."

If it [dabbling in art] didn't amuse me, I beg you to believe that I wouldn't do it.

The only reward one should offer an artist is to buy his work.

On the whole, the modern palette is the same as the one used by the artists of Pompeii... I mean it has not been enriched. The ancients used earths, ochres, and ivory-black - you can do anything with that palette.

And if out of a million visitors there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums.

Shall I tell you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it must be indescribable, and second, it must be inimitable.

Religion is everywhere. It is in the mind, in the heart, in the love you put into what you do.

Berthe Morisot was a painter full of eighteenth-century delicacy and grace; in a word, the last elegant and 'feminine' artists since Fragonard.

God, the king of artists, was clumsy.

An artist must eat sparingly and give up a normal way of life.

One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity.

If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a model, your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves; but Nature offers you millions, all on the same tree. No two leaves are exactly the same. The artist who paints only what is in his mind must very soon repeat himself.

Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.

Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.