Paul Cézanne

Visual Arts French 1839 – 1906 99 quotes

A Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

Quotes by Paul Cézanne

I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house, and the boat are to be found - the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than the impossible.

Interview 1900

With an apple I will astonish Paris.

Letter 1886

The artist must scorn all judgments that are not based on a knowledge of his work.

Letter 1905

I am more and more obsessed with the need to render what I experience.

Letter 1895

Optics, perspective, and composition are all mathematical forms which the painter must know.

Interview 1900

What I do not see, I do not want to paint.

Letter 1880

The painter must give a new birth to the objects he sees.

Letter 1902

I have sworn to die painting.

Letter 1906

Monet is only an eye, but what an eye!

Interview 1895

The world is full of people who are determined to be creative against all odds.

Letter 1900

I am learning to see. Yes, I am learning to see.

Letter 1887

Art is the most beautiful of all lies.

Interview 1904

We live in a rainbow of chaos.

Letter 1890

The sensation is the equivalent of the image.

Letter 1900

I owe it to myself to say what I think.

Letter 1875

Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.

Interview 1902

The landscape becomes human, becomes a living thing.

Letter 1895

I must be able to get right to the heart of things.

Letter 1885

Time and reflection modify our vision.

Interview 1900

The artist is the slave of his vision.

Letter 1904