by Gustave Max Stevens (1871–1946)
She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
― David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays
Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 10" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG.
Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.