Overvirew of Piissarro, often known as the Father of Impressionism

1. It is absurd to look for perfection.

2. At fifty, that is in 1880, I formulated the idea of unity, without being able to render it. At sixty, I am beginning to see the possibility of rendering it.

3. Cover the canvas at the first go, then work at it until you see nothing more to add.

5. I regard it as a waste of time to think only of selling: one forgets one's art and exaggerates one's value.

8. I began to understand my sensations, to know what I wanted, at around the age of forty - but only vaguely.

9. Here he met Paul Durand-Ruel, the Parisian dealer who would become an ardent supporter of Pissarro and his fellow Impressionists. Pissarro participated in his last official Salon in 1870.

10. I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I'm always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!

11. I remember that, although I was full of fervour, I didn't have the slightest inkling, even at forty, of the deeper side to the movement we were pursuing by instinct. It was in the air! "By Michalon!' he cried. 'What on earth is that?" "You see ... a hoar-frost on deeply ploughed furrows." "Those furrows ? That frost ? But they are palette-scrapings placed uniformly on a dirty canvas. It has neither head nor tail, top nor bottom, front nor back." "Perhaps ... but the impression is there." "Well, it's a funny impression!" Louis Leroy "Exhibition of the Impressionists," Charivari, April 25,

15. He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." — St. Francis of Assisi

16. Thomas Paine wrote in The Rights of Man (1792): Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. . . . . . . . ... In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.

24. Les Petites Dallas

26. God takes care of imbeciles, little children and artists.

27. Red Roofs 1874

30. It is the brushwork of the right value and color which should produce the drawing.

32. It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character.

33. Don't be afraid in nature: one must be bold, at the risk of having been deceived and making mistakes.

34. Work at the same time on sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on an equal basis... Don't be afraid of putting on colour... Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression.

35. Observe that it is a great error to believe that all mediums of art are not closely tied to their time.

36. When you do a thing with your whole soul and everything that is noble within you, you always find your counterpart.

43. Everything is beautiful, all that matters is to be able to interpret.