I Have Been No More Than A

A Work Should Contain Its Total Meaning Within Itself And Should Impress It On The Spectator Before He Even Knows The Subject.

...the More A Picture Has To Give, The Greater It Is.

A Distinction Is Made Between Artists Who Work Directly From Nature And Those Who Work Purely From Imagination. Neither If These Methods Should Be Preferred To The Exclusion Of The Other. Often Both Are Used In Turn By The Same Man.

I Don't Paint Women, I Paint Pictures. . . What I Am After Above All Is Expression. If In A Portrait I Put Eyes, A Nose, A Mouth, There Isn't Much Use; On The Contrary It Paralyses The Imagination Of The Spectator, And Obliges Us To See The Person In A Certain Way.

A Young Painter Who Cannot Liberate Himself From The Influence Of Past Generations Is Digging His Own Grave.