I Would Like To Paint The

Lilla Cabot Perry, an American Impressionist painter who spent ten summers as Monet's neighbor at Giverny between 1889 and 1909, recorded this remark in her 1927 memoir Reminiscences of Claude Monet from 1889 to 1909, published in the American Magazine of Art. Perry noted that Monet used the image to describe his ideal of spontaneous, instinctive painting: just as a bird does not plan its song, the painter should respond directly to light and color rather than impose a predetermined scheme. It is among the most carefully sourced of his oral statements, transmitted by someone who knew him intimately.