Eugène Fromentin

Quotes

• “..Africa: it's a magic word that lends itselfs to suppositions and sets amateur explorers to dreaming. I want to try to be 'at home' on this bit of foreign [Arab] soil.”
• “The things I haven't seen with my own eyes are for me unknown.”
• “Interpreting the Orient through the arts would destroy it, the artistic exploitation might eventually prove as harmful as military or political adventurism.”
• “..that zone of consciousness through which all artists travel mentally, before ever approaching the easel.”
• “..the great Dutch school seemed to think of nothing but painting well [characterised by] the total absence of what today we call 'a subject'.”
• “What motive had a Dutch painter in painting a picture? None. And notice that he never asked for one. A peasant with a drunken red nose looks at you with his heavy eye and laughs with open mouth showing his teeth, raising a jug; if it is well painted, it has its value.”

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