"..and wanting to force nature to say things, making trees twist and rocks frown, as Gustave Doré does, or even painting it like Leonardo da Vinci, that's literature too. There's logic of colour, damn it all! The painter owes allegiance to that alone. Never to the logic of the brain; if he abandons himself to that logic, he's lost.. .Painting is first and foremost an optical affair. The stuff of our art is there, in what our eyes are thinking.. .If you respect nature, it will always unravel its meaning for you."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 161, in: 'What he told me – I. The motif'
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Paul Cézanne
95 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Paul Cézanne →
Related Quotes
"Don't you think your Corot [to Guilemet the painter] is a little short on temperament? I'm painting a portrait of Val…"
"He (the painter Manet) hits of the tone.. ..but his work lacks unity and temperament too. (ca. 1863)"
"At Aix () I am not free; whenever I want to return to Paris, I always have to put up a fight, and, although your (his…"
"Listen, monsieur Vollard, I worked a lot out of doors at . Except for that there was no other event of importance in …"
"If I dared, I should say that your [ Camille Pissarro ] letter is imprinted with sadness. The picture business isn't …"
"But there are motifs that would need three or four months' work, which could be done, as the vegetation doesn't chang…"
"I had the company of monsieur Gibert. Such people see clearly, but they have the teacher's eye. As the train was taki…"
"I saw Monet and Renoir at about the end of December; they had been on holiday in Genoa, in Italy."
"You positively paint like a madman."
"I've ripped it to pieces; your portrait, you know. I tried to work on it this morning, but it went from bad to worse,…"