10 Thoughts by Renoir on Painting

1. Pain passes, but beauty remains.

2. Why shouldn't art be beautiful? There are already enough ugly things in the world.

3. It took me 40 years to realize that black is the queen of all colors.

4. If, after painting a woman's behind, I feel the urge to touch it, then I have succeeded.

5. Renoir's last words about painting before his death, at the age of 78: "I think I am beginning to understand something about it."

6. In art, feeling is what matters most; if art needs to be explained, it is no longer art.

7. From time to time, each of us must attempt something that seems impossible.

8. There is nothing more absurd than an "expert."

9. If you paint a leaf on a tree without any model, your imagination will produce only a few leaves, while nature offers millions, all on the same tree, no two of them alike. A painter who paints only what his imagination creates very quickly begins to repeat himself.

10. What I like best about our movement (Impressionism) is that it is not concerned with the object being painted. I am free to paint flowers and simply call them flowers - they need not tell a story.