don't kick your mother in the stomach...

"masterworks are not made to astonish. they are made to pursuade, to convince, and to enter us through our pores...

"when you lack the respect you owe to nature, when you dare to offend against it in your work, you kick your mother in the stomach...

"art is never at a higher level than when it resembles nature so much as to be mistaken for nature itself. art never succeeds better than when it is hidden...

"if i could make you musicians, you would become better painters. in nature, all is harmony: a little more or less disturbs the key and produces a false note. we must learn to sing true with our brush or pencil, as much as with our voice. truth of form is comparable to truth of sound...

"it is true that exhibitions have become part of our lives. it is therefore impossible to suppress them. but they must not be encouraged. they destroy art, by making it a trade which artists no longer respect. the exhibitions are no more than bazaars in which mediocrity is impudently flaunted. they are useless and dangerous..."

jean auguste dominique ingres, passages from his correspondence and studio talk as reported by his pupils circa 1870, quoted here from sources & documents in the history of art, neoclassicism & romanticism 1750 - 1850, volume 2 restoration/twilight of humanism.