Essays on Painting

Many have been taken in by this over the years and quoted it as genuine.
It is quite consistent with the archness and trickiness of Picasso’s character
that he allowed his challenge to its veracity to be so understated. I feel that
he perhaps revelled in the fact that it may possibly have contained a little
truth within it.
Throughout this book I am not writing as an art historian but I do
mention the literary content of paintings,
where it seems relevant. These I will leave mention of the possible intentions,
feelings or moods of the characters depicted by the artist to some
imaginative art historians. I touch on the lives and motives of artists only
where they are relevant to their working methods but I am not very concerned
with biographies. Where I have happened to have come across an
particular interesting anecdote however, I have included it.
I still often hear, “I don't know anything about art but I know what I
like”, I often feel tempted to reply by saying, “I know a great deal about art
but I don't know what I like.” It is a fact the more you learn about art, the
more understanding and perhaps the more tolerant you become, in this
book I hope to offer you a more measured point of view.
No one has ever truly loved and profited by a picture who has not
patiently endured a long novitiate and become something of an
artist in perception if not in practice. (Bodkin 1927 P.69)
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