Quote #16

Copying nature - what is that supposed to mean? Follow the masters! But why should one follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn't follow anybody!

More from Paul Gauguin

  1. In art, there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists. And in the end, doesn't the revolutionary's work become offici…
  2. In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind.
  3. Your Nordic blue eyes looked attentively at the paintings hanging on the walls. I felt stirrings of rebellion: a whole clash between your c…
  4. A time will come when people will think I am a myth, or rather something the newspapers have made up.
  5. A young man who is unable to commit a folly is already an old man.
  6. As I wanted to suggest a luxuriant and untamed type of nature, a tropical sun that sets aglow everything around it, I was obliged to give m…
  7. I am a great artist and I know it. It's because of what I am that I have endured so much suffering, so as to pursue my vocation, otherwise …
  8. My eyes close and uncomprehendingly see the dream in the infinite space that stretches away, elusive, before me.

All Paul Gauguin quotes