Paulo Coelho

painting by Pierre-August Renoir

As a young man, the painter Henri Matisse used to pay a weekly visit to the great Renoir in his studio. When Renoir was afflicted by arthritis, Matisse began to visit him daily, taking him food, brushes, paints, but always trying to persuade the master that he was working too hard and needed to rest a little.

One day, noticing that each brushstroke made Renoir cry out with pain, Matisse could contain himself no longer:

‘Master, you have already created a vast and important body of work, why continue torturing yourself in this way?’

‘Very simple,’ Renoir replied. ‘Beauty remains, but pain passes.’