Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.
Edgar DegasRead
A picture is a thing which requires as much knavery, as much malice, and as much vice as the perpetration of a crime. Make it untrue and add an accent of truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that creating art can involve deception and manipulation, akin to committing a crime.
Edgar Degas's quote reflects on the complex nature of artistic creation, indicating that producing a compelling image often involves a level of cunning and a departure from absolute truth. He emphasizes that artists may intentionally distort reality, adding layers of meaning and emotion that might not be fully truthful yet resonate more deeply than a straightforward depiction.
Themes
ArtDeceptionCreationTruthEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
An artist discussing the deeper meanings behind their work in an interview.
More from Edgar Degas
All quotes →No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.
Edgar DegasRead
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
Edgar DegasRead
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 DegasRead
The Dance instills in you something that sets you apart. Something heroic and remote.
Edgar DegasRead
You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.
Edgar DegasRead
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