Top 15 Frédéric Bazille Quotes

The subject matter is unimportant, provided what I have done is interesting as a painting. I chose the modern era because it is the one I understand best; I find it more alive for people who are alive.

I have no intention of being killed, there's too much I still want to do with my life.

I have almost finished a large landscape [painting 'Landscape by the Lez River' - [around Montpellier].. ..I am completely alone on the country; my cousins and my brother are at the resort. My father and mother are living in town; this solitude pleases me enormously; it makes me work a lot and read a lot.

I have started a large landscape which is beginning to take shape.

I've been amusing myself recently painting the interior of my studio with my friends. Manet is helping me with it [Manet painted Bazille, in front of the easel], and I may send it to the exhibition in Montpellier. This painting has delayed the one ['Scène d'Été'] I am going to do for the [Paris] Salon, but I am working hard and it won't take very long to complete

My friends have given me all sort of compliments on my painting [probably 'Scene d'Été'.] Nevertheless it would not be surprising if it were rejected or at least badly placed [on the Paris Salon ]. I started another ['La Toilette / The Toilette' ] which I think will be accepted; it is however very difficult to do. There are three women, one of whom is entirely nude, another nearly so. I have found a ravishing model who is going to cost me an arm and a leg: 10 francs a day plus bus fare for her and for her mother who accompanies her.

It is really too ridiculous for a reasonably intelligent person to expose himself to this kind of administrative caprice.

I've extended my hospitality to one of my friends, a former student of Gleyre's, who lacks a studio at the moment. Renoir, that's his name, is a real worker, he takes advantage of my models and helps me pay for them.

The sun allowed me only four days of work. Today it is beautiful and I am about to go out.. .I have begun three or four landscapes of the area around Aigues-Mortes. In my large canvas 'The Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes', I am going to do the walls of the city, reflected in a pond at sunset. This will be a very simple painting, which should not take long to do. Nevertheless I would need at least eight beautiful days. I hope that everything will be finished by the 12th [of June, 1867]

Letter to his mother, February 1867; as quoted in Michel Schulmann, Frédéric Bazille, 1841-1870, Catalogue raisonné: peintures, dessins, pastels, aquarelles; sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondence, Paris, 1995, p. 354

Monet has popped up out of nowhere with a collection of magnificent canvases.. .With Renoir, that makes two hard-up painters I am putting up. It's quite an infirmary here.

If I did not know how unhappy you [ Monet, his friend] are, I certainly would not take the trouble to respond to the letter that reached me this morning. You try to demonstrate to me that I don't keep my promises, but you have only succeeded in proving to me your ingratitude. As far as I know I had never had the air to give you charity. I know to the contrary, better than everyone, the value of the painting that I have purchased [Monet's painting 'Women in the garden' purchased by Bazille] and I very much regret not being wealthy enough to offer you better conditions. (WPJ 15)

Don't worry! I bring to it all the necessary objectivity, don't be alarmed.. ..dirty machinists, very dumb musicians, a very old [choreographer] Monsieur Auber, and everyone only thinks about getting her job done as quickly as possible to earn a living.

[ Monet is] ..hard at work for some time now. His paintings has really progressed, I'm sure it will attract a lot of attention. He has sold thousands of franc's worth of paintings in the last few days, and has one or two other small commissions. He's definitely on his way.

Finally.. ..I will have finished the paintings for my uncle. I have completely reworked them since my last letter [to his mother, 5 May 1865]; originally I had included a mass of details, which, from the distance they were intended to be viewed, had a very bad effect. I have worked at breakneck speed for two weeks, and now I am rather pleased, at least with one of them.