Quelle 6: Théodore Duret: The Impressionist Painters, 1878,
zitiert nach: Linda Nochlin: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904. Sources and Documents, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1966,
S. 7-10.

The Impressionists did not create themselves all alone; they did not grow like mushrooms. They are a product of a regular evolution of the modern French school. Natura non fecit saltum - more in painting than in anything else. The Impressionists descend from the naturalistic painters; their fathers are Corot, Courbet, and Manet. It is to these three masters that the art of painting owes the simplest methods of construction and that impulsive brushwork proceeding by means of large strokes and masses, which alone defies time. It is to them that we owe light-colored painting, finally freed from litharge, from bitumen, from chocolate, from tobacco juice, from burnt fat and bread crumbs. It is to them that we owe the out-of-doors study, the sensation not merely of colors, but of the slightest nuances of colors, the tones, and still further, the search for the connection between the condition of the atmosphere which illuminates the painting and the general tonality of the objects which are painted in it. To that which the Impressionists received from their predecessors was added the influence of Japanese art. [...]
After the Impressionists had taken from their immediate predecessors in the French school their forthright manner of painting out-of-doors from the first impression with vigorous brushwork, and had grasped the bold, new methods of Japanese coloring, they set off from these acquisitions to develop their own originality and to abandon themselves to their personal sensations.
The Impressionist sits on the banks of a river; depending on the condition of the sky, the angle of vision, the hour of the day, the calm or agitation of the atmosphere, the water takes on a complete range of tones; without hesitating, he paints on his canvas water which has all these tones. When the sky is overcast, the weather rainy, he paints glaucous, heavy, opaque water. When the sky is clear, the sun bright, he paints sparkling, silvery, brilliant blue water. When there is wind, he paints the reflections produced by the ripples; when the sun sets and darts its rays into the water, the Impressionist, in order to fasten down these effects, plasters his canvas with yellow and red. At this point, the public begins to laugh.
When winter comes, the Impressionist paints snow. He sees that the shadows on the snow are blue in the sunlight; unhesitatingly, he paints blue shadows. Now the public laughs outright. If certain clayey soils of the countryside have a lilac tinge, the Impressionist paints lilac landscapes. At this point, the public begins to get indignant.