Talent does whatever it wants to do. Genius does only what it can.
Meaning of the quote
Talent is like a wild animal - it can do whatever it feels like doing. But genius is different. Genius is more controlled and focused. Genius can only do what it is truly capable of, without going beyond its limits.
About Eugene Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.
In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form.
More quotes from Eugene Delacroix
Do all the work you can; that is the whole philosophy of the good way of life.
French painter (1798-1863)
Talent does whatever it wants to do. Genius does only what it can.
French painter (1798-1863)
Do not be troubled for a language, cultivate your soul and she will show herself.
French painter (1798-1863)
The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.
French painter (1798-1863)
A taste for simplicity cannot endure for long.
French painter (1798-1863)
If one considered life as a simple loan, one would perhaps be less exacting. We possess actually nothing; everything goes through us.
French painter (1798-1863)
Nature is a dictionary; one draws words from it.
French painter (1798-1863)
What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
French painter (1798-1863)