"Don't ask me if painting should be objective or subjective-I don't give a d... about such things. It makes me wild to have young painters come to me and ask about the aims of painting. And then there are those who explain to me why I put a red or a blue in such-and-such a place ... Granted that our craft is difficult, complicated; I understand the soul-searchings. But all the same, a little simplicity, a little candour, is necessary.
I just struggle with my figures until they are a harmonius unity with their landscape background, and I want people to feel that neither setting nor the figures are dull and lifeless."
-Cited in Cennino Cennini "Le Livre de l'Art ou Traite de la Peinture" translated by V. Mottez New edition with a letter from Renoir, 1911
