Pierre Bonnard Quotes

• It's not a matter of painting life, it's a matter of giving life to painting.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Life, Giving, Matter

  Nicholas Watkins, Pierre Bonnard (1994). “Bonnard”, Phaidon Incorporated Limited

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• Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, and express your pleasure strongly.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Pleasure, Paint, Draws

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• I am just beginning to understand what it is to paint. A painter should have two lives, one in which to learn, and one in which to practice his art.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Art, Should Have, Practice

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• The precision of naming takes away from the uniqueness of seeing.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Vision, Precision, Seeing

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• Imagination is merely the exploitation of our memory.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Memories, Imagination, Our Memories

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• Painting has to get back to its original goal, examining the inner lives of human beings.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Goal, Painting, Humans

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• Drawing is feeling. Color is an act of reason.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Color, Drawing, Feelings

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• What attracted me was less art itself than the artist’s life and all that it meant for me: the idea of creativity and freedom of expression and action. I had been attracted to painting and drawing for a long time, but it was not an irresistible passion; what I wanted, at all costs, was to escape the monotony of life.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Art, Passion, Creativity

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• You cannot possibly invent painting all by yourself.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Painting

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• How many days have I spent alone with my cat... and when I say alone, I mean without a material being, for my cat is a mystical companion, a spirit.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Mean, Cat, Spirit

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• The artist who paints the emotions creates an enclosed world... the picture... which, like a book, has the same interest no matter where it happens to be. Such an artist, we may imagine, spends a great deal of time doing nothing but looking, both around him and inside him.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Book, Artist, World

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• The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Important, Remember, Canvas

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• Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Death, Color, Design

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• Speaking, when you have something to say, is like looking. But who looks? If people could see properly, and see whole, they would all be painters. And it's because people have no idea how to look that they hardly ever understand.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Ideas, People, Looks

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• Art will never be able to exist without nature.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Art, Able

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• What I am after is the first impression - I want to show all one sees on first entering the room - what my eye takes in at first glance.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Eye, First Impression, Want

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• One always talks of surrendering to nature. There is also such a thing as surrendering to the picture.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Pierre Bonnard, Dita Amory, Nicole R. Myers, Allison Stielau, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) (2009). “Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors”, p.5, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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• It seemed to me that it was possible to translate light, forms, and character using nothing but color, without recourse to values.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Character, Light, Color

  Pierre Bonnard, Jörg Zutter, Gloria Lynn Groom, National Gallery of Australia (2003). “Pierre Bonnard: observing nature”, Natl Gallery of Australia

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• You reason colour more than you reason drawing Colour has a logic as severe as form.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Drawing, Logic, Reason

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• The principal subject is the surface, which has its color, its laws over and above those of object.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Color, Law, Surface

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• A painting that is well composed is half finished.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Art, Half, Architecture

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• The painter's only solid ground is the palette and colors, but as soon as the colors achieve an illusion, they are no longer judged.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Color, Illusion, Achieve

  Antoine Terrasse, Pierre Bonnard (2000). “Discoveries: Bonnard: Shimmering Color”, Harry N Abrams Incorporated

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• The expression on my face - who on earth would be interested in that? All that I have to say is to be found in my works. (On being photographed)

  Pierre Bonnard

  Expression, Would Be, Earth

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• Work on the accent, it will enliven the whole.

  Pierre Bonnard

  Strength, Accents, Whole

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• And after drawing comes composition. A well-composed painting is half done

  Pierre Bonnard

  Drawing, Done, Half

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