“It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.”

— Edgar Degas

Memory Transformation

“Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.”

— Edgar Degas

Painting Easy Know

“The creation of a painting takes as much trickery and premeditation as the commitment of a crime.”

— Edgar Degas

artists

“Art isn't something you marry it's something you rape.”

— Edgar Degas

art artist

“Painting is easy when you don't know how but very difficult when you do.”

— Edgar Degas

ignorance

“Art isn't something you marry it's something you rape.”

— Edgar Degas

art artist

“Painting is easy when you don't know how but very difficult when you do.”

— Edgar Degas

ignorance

“I am busy on a portrait of my self and my aunt and my two cousins, I will show it to you when you get back. I am doing it as if I were doing a picture. I've got to do it well, because I want to lea...”

— Edgar Degas

“Boredom soon overcomes me when I am contemplating nature.”

— Edgar Degas

“It seems to me that today, if the artist wishes to be serious — to cut out a little original niche for himself, or at least preserve his own innocence of personality — he must once more sink himsel...”

— Edgar Degas

“Make portraits of people in familiar and typical positions, above all give their faces the same choice of expression one gives their bodies. Thus if laughter is typical for a person, make him laugh...”

— Edgar Degas

“We also consider that Miss Berthe Morisot's [woman painter in French Impressionism who got later married with a brother of Eduard Manet] name and talent are too important to us to do without. [Dega...”

— Edgar Degas

“J'ai vraiment, un vrai bagage dans la tête. S'il y avait pour cela, comme il y a partout ici, des compagnies d'assurance, voilà un ballot je ferais assurer de suite.”

— Edgar Degas