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Painting, in the beginning, was a trade like any other. Some men became picture-makers as others became glaziers or carpenters. Painters painted shields, saddles and banners. The primitive painter was more of a craftsman than we are; he learned his trade superlatively well before he thought of letting himself go. The reverse is true today.

— Eugène Delacroix Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

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More quotes by Eugène Delacroix

For his contemporaries, Racine was a romantic, but for every age he is classical, that is to say, he is faultless.

Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

The so-called conscientiousness of the great majority of painters is nothing but perfection laboriously applied to the art of being boring.

Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

Nature creates unity even in the parts of a whole.

Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

Curiously enough, the Sublime is generally achieved through want of proportion.

Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

Mythological subjects always new. Modern subjects difficult because of the absence of the nude and the wretchedness of modern costume.

Delacroix' 'Journal (1847)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Eugène Delacroix (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.