Camille Corot: "Be guided by feeling alone. We are only simple mortals, subject to error"

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

• "Non imitare, non seguire gli altri, altrimenti resterai indietro".

• "Nessuno mi ha mai insegnato: il mio istinto mi spinge e io gli obbedisco".

• "You know, a landscape painter's day is delightful. You get up early, at three o'clock in the morning, before sunrise; you go and sit under a tree; you watch and wait. At first there is nothing much to be seen. Nature looks like a whitish canvas with a few broad outlines faintly sketched in; all is misty, everything quivers in the cool dawn breeze. The sky lights up. The sun has not yet burst through the gauze veil that hides the meadow, the little valley, the hill on the horizon.. ..Ah, a first ray of sunshine"!

• "In preparing a study or a picture, it seems to me very important to begin by an indication of the darkest values... and to continue in order to the lightest value. From the darkest to the lightest I would establish twenty shades".

• "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".

• "Lasciati guidare dai sentimenti da solo. Abbandonati alla tua prima impressione. Se sei stato davvero toccato, trasmetterai agli altri la sincerità della tua emozione".

• "Never lose the first impression which has moved you".

• "Non perdere mai la prima impressione che ti ha commosso".

• "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".

• "Be guided by feeling alone. We are only simple mortals, subject to error".

• "Lasciati guidare solo dai sentimenti. Siamo solo semplici mortali, soggetti ad errore".

• "Heavens, how charming it is! There is now in the sky only the soft vaporous color of pale citron - the last reflection of the sun which plunges into the dark blue of the night, going from green tones to a pale turquoise of an unheard-of fineness and a fluid delicacy quite indescribable".

• "Set up your study or picture in an orderly fashion. This order should not cramp either the linearist or the colorist... Never lose sight of that first impression by which you were moved. I work on all parts of my painting at once, improving it very gently until I find that the effect is complete".

• ".. (In Italia)…questo sole diffonde una luce disperante per me; sento tutta l'impotenza della mia tavolozza..."