Edgar Degas Quotes

French Impressionist artist (1834–1917)

Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917), was a French painter, print-maker and sculptor. He was moreover an active organizer of several Impressionist exhibitions, but never painted 'plain air' himself.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas • Ėdgar Dega • Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas • Edgar Dega • Hilarie Germain Edgar Degas • H. G. E. Degas • E. Degas • Hilaire Germain Degas • hilaire germain edgar degas • Te-chia • degas edgar • Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas • h.g.e. degas • edgar hilaire germain degas • h.e.g. degas • Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas • hilaire degas • Jilaira Germain Edgar Degas • hilaire german edgar degas • Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas • Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas • jilaire germain edgar degas degas • Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas Degas • degas e. • degas h.g.e. • hilaire germaine edgar degas • Degas • e. degas • Hillaire germaine edgar degas • Hilaire Germain Edgar De Gas • edgar hillaire germaine degas • Edgar (Hilaire Germain) Degas

From Wikidata (CC0)

A picture is a thing which requires as much knavery, as much malice, and as much vice as the perpetration of a crime. Make it untrue and add an accent of truth.

The museums are here to teach the history of art and something more as well, for, if they stimulate in the weak a desire to imitate, they furnish the strong with the means of their emancipation.

The study of nature is of no significance, for painting is a conventional art, and it is infinitely more worthwhile to learn to draw after w:Holbein.

A man is an artist only at certain moments, by an effort of will. Objects have the same appearance for everybody.

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

Le dessin n'est pas la forme, il est la manière de voir la forme.

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.

Il faut avoir une haute idée, non pas de ce qu'on fait, mais de ce qu'on pourra faire un jour; sans quoi ce n'est pas la peine de travailler.

People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.

I'm glad to say I haven't found my style yet. I'd be bored to death.

I, marry? Oh, I could never bring myself to do it. I would have been in mortal misery all my life for fear my wife might say, "That's a pretty little thing," after I had finished a picture.

If I were the government I would have a special brigade of gendarmes to keep an eye on artists who paint landscapes from nature. Oh, I don't mean to kill anyone; just a little dose of bird-shot now and then as a warning.

Poor Gauguin, 'way off there on his island! I'll wager he spends most of his time thinking of Rue Lafitte. I advised him to go to New Orleans, but he decided it was too civilized. He had to have people around him with flowers on their heads and rings in their noses before he could feel at home. Now if I should leave my house for more than two days...

Another Visitor: How did you manage, Monsieur Degas, when you painted that plein air called 'Le Plage', the one Monsieur Rouart has? Degas: It was quite simple. I spread my flannel vest on the floor of the studio, and had the model sit on it. You see, the air you breathe in a picture is not necessarily the same as the air out of doors.

Visitor: Monsieur Degas, were there any of Monet's pictures at the Durand-Ruel exhibition?
Degas: Why, I met Monet himself there, and I said to him, 'Let me get out of here. Those reflections in the water hurt my eyes!' His pictures were always too draughty for me. If it had been any worse I should have had to turn up my coat collar.