Marie Bracquemond

"Impressionism has produced by this very method not only a new, but a very useful way of looking at things. It is as though all at once the window opens and the sun and air enter your house in torrents. Nature appears clear, enchanted, interesting. It is as though suffocating air had been let out of your attic!"

"No one has ever arrived at a power of analysis of tonal values at once so intense and so sweet...Monet may or may not have thought out these works, but with what vigor he has executed them...I cannot say at what point Monet arouses my emotions, but he produced in me such sensations as make me happy, but which I could not have discovered myself. He opens my eyes and makes me see better."

"The severity of Monsieur Ingres frightened me. I tell you, because he doubted the courage and perseverance of a woman in the field of painting. He wished to impose limits. He would assign to them only the painting of flowers, of fruits, of still lifes, portraits and genre scenes...I quickly understood that I could take no part in that school except to waste my time."