Frases de Edgar Degas

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“Es bueno copiar lo que se ve, pero es mucho mejor pintar lo que queda en nuestra memoria después de ver algo. Se trata de una transformación en donde la imaginación y la memoria trabajar juntas. Sólo se puede reproducir algo que nos golpeó, es decir, sólo lo esencial.”

“Solamente cuando ya no sabe lo que está haciendo, un pintor hace cosas buenas.”

“Un cuadro debe ser pintado con el mismo sentimiento con que un criminal comete un crimen.”

“En el arte nada debe parecer accidental, incluso un movimiento.”

“La pintura no es muy difícil cuando usted no sabe cómo, pero cuando sabe, ¡oh! Entonces, es otro asunto.”

“Lo que quiero hacer es el resultado de la reflexión y el estudio de los grandes maestros; de inspiración, espontaneidad, el temperamento.”

“Me gustaría ser famoso y desconocido.”

“El aburrimiento pronto me supera cuando estoy contemplando la naturaleza.”

“Siempre insto a mis contemporáneos a buscar el interés y la inspiración para el desarrollo y estudio del dibujo, pero no me escuchan.”

“Una pintura requiere un poco de misterio, algunas imprecisiones y fantasías.”

“Jamás hubo un arte menos espontáneo que el mío. Lo que hago es el resultado de la reflexión y del estudio de los grandes maestros. De la inspiración, de la espontaniedad, del temperamento no sé nada.”

“Work a great deal at evening effects, lamplight, candlelight, etc. The intriguing thing is not to show the source of the light but the effect of the lighting.”

“I have been singularly hard with myself. I have had to be. You must realize that this is so, since you have, at times, reproached me for it, and were astonished because I had so little confidence in myself. I have been, or seemed, hard with everyone because I was carried away by a sort of brutality born of my distrust in myself and my ill-humor. I have felt so badly equipped, so soft, in spite of the fact that my attitude towards art seemed to me so just. I was disgusted with everyone, and especially myself. I ask your pardon, then, if, with this damned art as an excuse, I have wounded your noble and intelligent spirit; perhaps even your heart..”

“In our beginnings, Fantin, Whistler and I were all on the same road, the road from Holland [Dutch 17th century painters]”

“Your pictures would have been finished a long time ago if I were not forced every day to do something to earn money.”

“Vollard, please do not say anything against fashions. Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if there were no fashions? How would women spent their time? What would they have to talk about? Life would become unbearable for us men. Why, if women were to break away from the rules of fashion - fortunately there is no danger - the government would have to step in and take a hand.”

“It is true. There is someone who feels as I do.”