Claude Monet

Visual Arts French 1840 – 1926 341 quotes

Founder of Impressionism, Water Lilies

Most quoted

"Try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you."

— from Advice to Lilla Cabot Perry

"For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually."

— from Interview, 1890

"I am working at a furious pace. I am afraid of the sun, afraid of the wind, afraid of the clouds, afraid of the rain, afraid of the fog, afraid of the frost, afraid of the snow."

— from Monet's letters

All quotes by Claude Monet (341)

I am trying to paint the sensation of seeing, not just the act of seeing.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the world as I see it, not as others see it.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the essence of nature, the spirit of the landscape.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the beauty of the ordinary, the everyday.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the world with my own eyes, with my own feelings.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the poetry of nature.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the music of the landscape.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the soul of nature.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the fleeting beauty of life.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the joy of seeing.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the wonder of the world.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the mystery of light.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the magic of color.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the dream of nature.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the illusion of reality.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the feeling of being alive.

Monet's letters

I am trying to paint the infinite variations of light.

Monet's letters

I must have flowers, always, and always.

Letter

I am following Nature without being able to grasp her... I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

Letter

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

Letter 1908