Degas, Edgar -- Quoted in Georges Jeanniot, “Souvenirs sur Degas [Memories of Degas],” La Revue Universelle (1933-10-15)

Dave — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:03:27 +0000

It is very good to copy what one sees; it is much better to draw what you can’t see any more but is in your memory. It is a transformation in which imagination and memory work together. You only reproduce what struck you, that is to say the necessary. There your memories and your fantasy are freed from the tyranny exercised by nature.

[C’est très bien de copier ce qu’on voit, c’est beaucoup mieux de dessiner ce que l’on ne voit plus que dans son mémoire. C’est une transformation pendant laquelle l’ingéniosité collabore avec la mémoire. Vous ne reproduisez que ce qui vous a frappé, c’est-à-dire le nécessaire. Là, vos souvenirs et votre fantaisie sont libérés de la tyrannie qu’exerce la nature.]

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) French Impressionist artist [b. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas]
Quoted in Georges Jeanniot, “Souvenirs sur Degas [Memories of Degas],” La Revue Universelle (1933-10-15)
(Source)

The quotation is often cited to Maurice Sérullaz, L'univers de Degas (1979), but Sérullaz says he is requoting Degas from Swiss-French Impressionist painter Pierre-Georges Jeanniot.

WIST Quotations

Degas, Edgar -- Quoted in Georges Jeanniot, “Souvenirs sur Degas [Memories of Degas],” La Revue Universelle (1933-10-15)