I should like the fields tinged with red, the rivers yellow and the trees painted blue. Nature has no imagination.

Charles Baudelaire
About This Quote

Claude Monet once said, “I should like the fields tinged with red, the rivers yellow and the trees painted blue. Nature has no imagination.” He was probably referring to the cliché of nature painting in its purest form, but his meaning is broader than that. He was suggesting that his paintings, which are so full of life and movement, are not natural. They are artificial.

They are made by human hands, not by nature. We may think that Monet was being overly dramatic here, but he was right. Nature can paint some breathtaking colors—but it doesn’t have the imagination to paint them in a way that seems natural.

It has to be painted by humans.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. - Jane Austen
  2. I would always rather be happy than dignified. - Unknown
  3. Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like... - Gillian Anderson
  4. It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid,... - Coco Chanel
  5. I am not an angel, ' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall... - Unknown
More Quotes By Charles Baudelaire
  1. A mind stretched by a new ideanever shrinks back to its original proportions. ~
  2. To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
  3. You commit a sin of omission if you do not utilize all the power that is within you. All men have claims on man and to the man with special talents this is a very special claim. It is required that a man take part...
  4. Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
  5. I confess that altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. With all humility I think 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might ' infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbour as one's self....
Related Topics