Edgar Degas Quotes - Page 2

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• It seems to me that today, if the artist wishes to be serious - to cut out a little original niche for himself, or at least preserve his own innocence of personality - he must once more sink himself in solitude. There is too much talk and gossip; pictures are apparently made, like stock-market prices, by competition of people eager for profit; in order to do anything at all we need (so to speak) the wit and ideas of our neighbors as much as the businessmen need the funds of others to win on the market. All this traffic sharpens our intelligence and falsifies our judgment.

  Edgar Degas

  Cutting, Artist, Winning

  Edgar Degas' notebook entry (circa 1860), as quoted in "Artists on Art: From the XIV to the XX Century" edited by Robert Goldwater, 1945.

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• Only two of my personalities are schizophrenic, but one of them is paranoid and the other one is out to get him. Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

  Edgar Degas

  Two, Personality, Doe

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• My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.

  Edgar Degas

  Art, Intelligent, Thinking

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• Taste! It doesn't exist. An artist makes beautiful things without being aware of it.

  Edgar Degas

  Beautiful, Artist, Taste

  Edgar Degas, Jean Sutherland Boggs (1988). “Degas [exposition]”, p.491, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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• Great patience is called for on the hard path that I have entered on.

  Edgar Degas

  Patience, Path, Hard

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• He once said that he wished to be famous, but unknown.

  Edgar Degas

  Want

  "Degas: Drawings".

  54 Copy quote

• You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.

  Edgar Degas

  One Day, May, Conception

  "Degas Danse Dessin (Mad About Drawing)". Book by Paul Valery (1935) translated by David Paul (p. 64), 1989.

  38 Copy quote

• Art' is the same word as 'artifice,' that is to say, something deceitful. It must succeed in giving the impression of nature by false means.

  Edgar Degas

  Art, Mean, Giving

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• No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.

  Edgar Degas

  Art, Reflection, Study

  Ann Dumas, Edgar Degas (1996). “Degas As a Collector”

  53 Copy quote

• Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance.

  Edgar Degas

  Night, Long, Together

  36 Copy quote

• If I could have had my own way, I would have confined myself to black and white.

  Edgar Degas

  Black And White, Way, My Own

  Edgar Degas (1963). “Degas”

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• Drawing is not the same as form, it is a way of seeing form.

  Edgar Degas

  Drawing, Way, Form

  Edgar Degas, Jane Kinsman, Michael Pantazzi (2009). “Degas: The Uncontested Master”

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• Hitherto the nude has always been represented in poses which presuppose an audience. But my women are simple, honest creatures who are concerned with nothing beyond their physical occupations... it is as if you were looking through a keyhole.

  Edgar Degas

  Beauty, Simple, Occupation

  27 Copy quote

• Daylight is too easy. What I want is difficult - the atmosphere of lamps and moonlight.

  Edgar Degas

  Photography, Atmosphere, Daylight

  Edgar Degas, Jean Sutherland Boggs (1988). “Degas [exposition]”, p.535, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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• I should like to be famous and unknown.

  Edgar Degas

  Artist, Should

  Edgar Degas' remark to Henri Rouart, as quoted in Antoine Terrasse "Degas", 1973.

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• What use is my mind? Granted that it enables me to hail a bus and to pay my fare. But once I am inside my studio, what use is my mind? I have my model, my pencil, my paints. My mind doesn't interest me.

  Edgar Degas

  Imagination, Mind, Use

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• It seems to me that today if the artist wishes to be serious... he must once more sink himself in solitude.

  Edgar Degas

  Artist, Solitude, Wish

  Trewin Copplestone, Edgar Degas (1998). “Edgar Degas”, Gramercy Books

  9 Copy quote

• The frame is the reward of the artist.

  Edgar Degas

  Artist, Rewards

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• Make a drawing. Start it all over again, trace it. Start it and trace it again.

  Edgar Degas

  Drawing

  Robert Hale Ives Gammell, Edgar Degas (1961). “The shop-talk of Edgar Degas”

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• Instantaneity is photography.

  Edgar Degas

  Photography

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• People call me the painter of dancers, but I really wish to capture movement itself.

  Edgar Degas

  People, Dancer, Wish

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• What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.

  Edgar Degas

  Understanding, Charming, Conversation

  Edgar Degas (1948). “Letters”

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• The Dance instills in you something that sets you apart. Something heroic and remote.

  Edgar Degas

  Dance, Ballet, Heroic

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• Art is vice. One does not wed it, one rapes it.

  Edgar Degas

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Robert Hale Ives Gammell, Edgar Degas (1961). “The shop-talk of Edgar Degas”

  16 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as Intelligence; one has intelligence of this or that. One must have intelligence only for what one is doing.

  Edgar Degas

  Intelligence

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