my lighting had changed

“When I began . . . I believed that two canvases would suffice, one for gray weather and one for sun. At that time I was painting some haystacks that had excited me and that made a magnificent group, just two steps from here. One day, I saw that my lighting had changed. I said to my stepdaughter: ‘Go to the house, if you don’t mind, and bring me another canvas!’ She brought it to me, but a short time afterward it was different again. ‘Another! Still another!’ And I worked on each one only when I had my effect, that’s all.”

—Claude Monet, on his haystack series, as quoted in Monet by William C. Seitz, 1960.

something similar to Wagner’s music

“A palette nowadays is absolutely colorful: sky-blue, pink, orange, vermillion, strong yellow, clear green, pure wine red, purple. But by strengthening all colors one again obtains calm and harmony; there happens something similar to Wagner’s music which, even though performed by a great orchestra, is nonetheless intimate.”

—Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his sister, as quoted in Post-Impressionism from van Gogh to Gauguin by John Rewald, 1958.

A Call To The Infinite

“Depth is found in blue, first in its physical movements (1) of retreat from the spectator; (2) of turning upon its own center. It affects us likewise mentally in any geometrical form. The deeper its tone, the more intense and characteristic the effect. We feel a call to the infinite, a desire for purity and transcendence.”

—Wassily Kandinsky, from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1947.

the first time you saw God

“You know, dear, the first time you saw God was when You were four years old And he put his head to the window and set you ascreaming.”

—Mrs. William Blake, as recalled by Crabb Robinson, from Blake Records, 1969. Found in William Blake: The Critical Heritage, edited by B.E. Bentley, Jr, 1975.

the Eyes of a Miser

“I see Every thing I paint In This World, but Every body does not see alike. To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun. . . . To Me This World is all One continued Vision of Fancy or Imagination.”

—William Blake, in a letter to the Reverend Dr Trusler, 1799. Found in William Blake: The Critical Heritage, edited by B.E. Bentley, Jr, 1975.

a long and moonless night

“’Tis but a night, a long and moonless night
We make the grave our bed, and then are gone!”

—William Blake, from The Grave, a Poem, illustrated by Twelve Etchings.

France is sick

“‘France is sick—the very sky
Though sunshine light, it seems to me as pale
As is the fainting man on his death-bed,
Whose face is shown by light of one weak taper—
It makes me sad and sick unto the heart;
Thousands must fall to-day.’”

—William Blake, from King Edward the Third. Spoken by Sir Thomas Dagworth on the eve of the battle of Cressy.

The Chimney Sweeper

“As Tommy was sleeping, he had such a sight;
There thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel, who had a bright key,
He opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green vale, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river, and shine like the sun.

Then, naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise up on pure clouds and sport in the wind:
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father and never want joy.”

—William Blake, from The Chimney Sweeper.

happy, silent, moony beams

“Sweet dreams form a shade
O’er my lovely infant’s head;
Sweat dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams.”

—William Blake, the opening of A Cradle Song.

the brilliant Wings of the Spirits of the Prism

“He [William Blake] can be excelled by none where he is successful. Like his thoughts his paintings seem to be inspired by fairies & his colours look as if they were the bloom dropped from the brilliant Wings of the Spirits of the Prism.”

—Frederick Tatham, from Life of Blake, composed about 1832 and first published in 1906.