Quotes from Pierre-Auguste Renoir

It is not enough for a painter to be a clever craftsman; he must love to 'caress' his canvas, too.

You've got to be a fool to want to stop the march of time.

I consider that women who are authors, lawyers, and politicians are monsters.

About 1883 something like a break occurred in my work. I had reached the end of 'impressionism,' and I had come to realize that I did not know how to paint or draw.

"The work of art must seize upon you...carry you away."

I've known painters who never did any good work because instead of painting their models they seduced them.

The only reward one should offer an artist is to buy his work.

Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.

Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

If it [dabbling in art] didn't amuse me, I beg you to believe that I wouldn't do it.

And if out of a million visitors there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums.

He bores me. He ought to have stuck to his flying machine. [On Leonardo Da Vinci]

Shall I tell you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it must be indescribable, and second, it must be inimitable.

My concern has always been to paint nudes as if they were some splendid fruit.

Why should beauty be suspect?

Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art.

Photography freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores, starting with family portraits.

One can thus state, without fear of being wrong, that every truly artistic production has been conceived and executed according to the principle of irregularity.