Everything is a subject; the subject is yourself. It is within yourself that you must look and not around you... The greatest happiness is to reveal it to others, to study oneself, to paint oneself continually in [one's] work. Eugene Delacroix More Quotes by Eugene Delacroix More Quotes From Eugene Delacroix The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently. Eugene Delacroix genius imagination art I have told myself a hundred times that painting - that is, the material thing called a painting - is no more than a pretext, the bridge between the mind of the painter and the mind of the spectator. Eugene Delacroix painting bridges mind It is often we come the closest to the essence of an artist... in his or her pocket notebooks and travel sketchbooks... where written comments and personal notes provide an intimate insight into the magical mind of a working artist. Eugene Delacroix notebook artist essence The true wisdom of the philosopher ought to insist in enjoying everything. Yet we apply ourselves to dissecting and destroying everything that is good in itself, that has virtue, albeit the virtue there is in mere illusions. Nature gives us this life like a toy to a weak child. We want to see how it all works; we break everything. There remains in our hands, and before our eyes, stupid and opened too late, the sterile wreckage, fragments that will not again make a whole. The good is so simple. Eugene Delacroix nature stupid children Every time I await a model, even when I am most pressed to time, I am overjoyed when the time comes and I tremble when I hear the key turn in the door. Eugene Delacroix turns keys doors What is real for me are the illusions I create with my paintings. Everything else is quicksand. Eugene Delacroix painting creative real [Photography is] in some ways false just because it is so exact. Eugene Delacroix photography way The source of genius is imagination alone. Eugene Delacroix source genius imagination If I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for her. Eugene Delacroix patriotic pain country Mythological subjects always new. Modern subjects difficult because of the absence of the nude and the wretchedness of modern costume. Eugene Delacroix costumes modern absence They say that each generation inherits from those that have gone before; if this were so there would be no limit to man's improvements or to his power of reaching perfection. But he is very far from receiving intact that storehouse of knowledge which the centuries have piled up before him; he may perfect some inventions, but in others, he lags behind the originators, and a great many inventions have been lost entirely. What he gains on the one hand, he loses on the other. Eugene Delacroix perfect men hands Criticism is like many other things, it drags along after what has already been said and doesn't get out of its rut. Eugene Delacroix ruts drag criticism Remember the enemy of all painting is gray: a painting will almost always appear grayer than it is, on account of its oblique position under the light. Eugene Delacroix painting light enemy Commonplace people have an answer for everything and nothing ever surprises them. They try to look as though they knew what you were about to say better than you did yourself, and when it is their turn to speak, they repeat with great assurance something that they have heard other people say, as though it were their own invention. Eugene Delacroix trying people looks Draughtsmen may be made, but colourists are born. Eugene Delacroix born made may One must learn to be grateful for one's own findings. Eugene Delacroix be-grateful gratitude grateful A taste for simplicity cannot last for long. Eugene Delacroix simplicity humility long There is a man whose qualities can be savored by people who are getting old... The painter qualities are carried to the highest point in his work: what he does is done - through and through; when he paints eyes, they are lit with the fire of life. Eugene Delacroix eye fire men The so-called conscientiousness of the majority of painters is only perfection applied to the art of boring. Eugene Delacroix boredom perfection art The artist is always concerned with a total view of the world. However, when the photographer takes a picture ... the edge of his picture is just as interesting as the middle, one can only guess at the existence of a whole, and the view presented seems chosen by chance. Eugene Delacroix artist views interesting