Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course. George Bernard Shaw
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it. Voltaire
I don’t understand it. Jack will spend any amount of money to buy votes but he balks at investing a thousand dollars in a beautiful painting. Jackie Kennedy
Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature’s phenomena before it can again become great. Edward Hopper
The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting. Edward Hopper
Well I have a very simple method of painting. Edward Hopper
A painting should be something pleasant and cheerful. Renoir 2012 starring Michel Bouquet & Christa Theret & Vincent Rottiers & Thomas Doret & Romane Bohringer et al, director Gilles Bourdos
Painting is silent poetry; poetry is eloquent painting. Simonides, Greek poet
For almost fifty years painting was Churchill’s private passion. Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint, BBC 2015
The Mona Lisa – bewitching, seductive, world famous. In the minds of millions she is the ultimate work of art ... Behind the enigmatic smile remains a mystery. Andrew Graham-Dixon, Secrets of the Mona Lisa, BBC 2015
If the Isleworth painting isn’t the earlier version, then it’s either lost or still out there somewhere. ibid.
There are dozens of copies. ibid.
The Louvre painting shows an idealised woman, maybe a posthumous portrait. ibid.
The work they were now doing required to be down very carefully and deliberately, otherwise the glass would be ‘messed up’ or the white paint of the frames would ‘run into’ the dark green of the sashes, both colours being wet at the same time, each man having two pots of paint and two sets of brushes. The wind was not blowing in sudden gusts, but swept by in a strong, persistent current that penetrated their clothing, and left them trembling and numb with cold. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. And at £2.5 billion it’s also the most famous. Heists s1e5: Mona Lisa, Channel 5 2017
Just over a hundred years ago the Mona Lisa was snatched from the world’s most famous museum. The crime sent shockwaves around the world and baffled the world’s greatest living detective. ibid.
The greatest art heist ever: August 22nd 1911. ibid.
Adolf sold his paintings on the streets. It is interesting that he only painted landscapes, never people. Two years in a row Hitler applied to and was rejected from the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts … The Academy told him he had no aptitude for painting. History’s Most Hated s1e4: Hitler & Stalin, History 2019
Hitler had very strict views on the kind of paintings that people should be admiring. Nazi Victory: The Post-War Plan V, Yesterday 2019
These are the stories of ten of the greatest paintings in the world. Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr s1e1: Mona Lisa, Channel 5 2020
The Louvre … 8 out of 10 people queueing are here to see just one thing: the Louvre’s most famous portrait, probably the world’s most famous portrait: the Mona Lisa. ibid.
Her gaze, her smile, that has kept the world mesmorised for decades … She is magnetic, she is captivating. ibid.
National Gallery, London: So many are attracted to just one image … This is The Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh … a deceptively simple image. Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr s1e2: Sunflowers by Van Gogh
One of the brightest pictures you will ever see. ibid.
One that Van Gogh was most proud of … The story behind it is somewhat harrowing. ibid.
Created in 1888 it still dazzles us. ibid.
National Gallery, London: It’s a haunting image to the backdrop of a pink, grey, orange sunset jumps a small dark steamer pulling a shimmering pale sailing-ship. Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr s1e3: The Fighting Tameraire, Channel 5 2020
Britain’s finest ever artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner. Turner was the kind of artistic superstar of British painting of the nineteenth century. ibid.
‘At the age of 14, which was young even in those days, he was admitted to the Royal Academy.’ ibid. Susie Hodge, author
This was an artist who in his twenties had taken London by storm … In 1807 he was appointed a professor at the prestigious Royal Academy … An astonishing rise for a boy from a barber’s shop. ibid.
I painted the picture, and in the colours the rhythm of the music quivers. I painted the colours I saw. Edvard Munch
Colin Robinson is no longer with us. Vampires are no stranger to death. They deal with that every day with the people that they kill but when they lose one of their own they still have to deal with it. The only funeral-type tradition is that they get a new portrait made with all of them except for the newly deceased. What We Do in the Shadows s3e10, Guillermo, BBC 2021
One rediscovery a few years ago made while reordering the stores is a rare set of ten Chinese paintings called The Ten Kings of Purgatory. Secrets of the Museum s2e4, BBC 2020