The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete, seen from nearby, are but patches of color next to each other, and only make and effect at a certain distance.

De beste schilderijen – juist uit een technisch oogpunt de volmaaktste – zijn van digt bij bezien toetsen kleur naast elkaar en doen hun effekt op een zekere distantie.

Vincent Van Gogh

Buy Van Gogh's Letters at Amazon Buy Van Gogh's Letters at Amazon
Read this letter at vangoghletters.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Impressionism Art criticism Art

Author

Vincent Van Gogh

Source

Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Medium

Letter

Language

Dutch

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Occupation

Painter Artist

From

Netherlands Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Van Gogh, Vincent. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Nov. 1885.

Current Citation

Van Gogh, Vincent. Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh, edited by Irving Stone and Jean Stone. Plume, 1995.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Vincent van Gogh about impressionism: “The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete…”
Download
A quote by Vincent van Gogh about impressionism: “The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete…”
Download
A quote by Vincent van Gogh about impressionism: “The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete…”
Download

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1880s

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

Electrical Units of Measurement

More information about this quote
Topic
Knowledge
Speaker
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
Source
Electrical Units of Measurement
Medium
Lecture
Language
English
Time
1883 1880s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Thomson, William. "Electrical Units of Measurement." 3 May 1883, Institute of Civil Engineers, London, England, UK. Lecture.

Another quote about Art

Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires.

Pablo Picasso

More information about this quote
Topic
Painting Art
Speaker
Pablo Picasso
Time
1964 1960s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Picasso, Pablo. Quoted in Life with Picasso, written by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake. McGraw-Hill, 1964, pt. 6.