"About 1883 I had wrung Impressionism dry, and I finally came to the conclusion that I knew neither how to paint nor how to draw. In a word, Impressionism was a blind alley, as far as I was concerned ...
I finally realized that it was too complicated an affair, a kind of painting that made you constantly compromise with yourself. Outdoors there is a greater variety of light than in the studio, where, to all intents and purposes, it is constant; but, for just that reason, light plays too great a part outdoors; you have no time to work out the composition; you can't see what you are doing. I remember a white wall which reflected on my canvas one day while I was painting; I keyed down the colour to no purpose - everything I put on was too light; but, when I took it back to the studio, the picture looked black... If the painter works directly from nature, he ultimately looks for nothing but momentary effects; he does not try to compose, and soon he gets monotonous."
- Cited in Jean Renoir. Renoir, My Father, 1962.
