Quotes by Gustave Courbet

“Fine art is knowledge made visible.”

“Painting is the representation of visible forms. . . The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.”

“The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.”

“I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients.”

“I hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota.”

“I have studied the art of the masters and the art of the moderns, avoiding any preconceived system and without prejudice.”

“Painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist of the representation of real and existing things.”

“Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.”

“France is the only nation in which astoundingly small numbers of civilized patrons reside.”

I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.

I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in painting them.

The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

Fine art is knowledge made visible.

I hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota.

Painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist of the representation of real and existing things.

I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients.