18 Quotes by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

Don’t imitate, don’t follow the others, or else you will lag behind them.

Listen to the advice of others, but follow only what you understand and can unite in your own feeling. Be firm, be meek, but follow your own convictions. It is better to be nothing than an echo of other painters.

Art is nature as seen through a temperament.

Be guided by feelings alone. Abandon yourself to your first impression. If you really have been touched, you will convey to others the sincerity of your emotion.

The most important things in a painting are Form and Value. Color comes last – like a friend you welcome.

I am never in a hurry to reach details. First and above all I am interested in the large masses and the general character of a picture; when these are well established, then I try for subtleties of form and color. I rework the painting constantly and freely, and without any systematic method.

Never lose the first impression which has moved you.

I work on all parts of my painting at once, improving it very gently until I find that the effect is complete.

I always entreat the good Lord to give me my childhood back, that is to say, to grant that I may see nature and render it like a child, without prejudice.