It was his belief that the voices speaking to him were the spirits of his little sister who had died at the age of three, artists from ancient Greece and even Leonardo da Vinci himself. Guiding his hand, they told him, “Do not try to understand what you’re doing,” claims Lesage, who wrote that before he would start to paint, he would never have any idea as to what he wanted to portray. “I never have an overview of the entire work at any point of the execution. My guides tell me … I surrender to their impulse.”
(via larsschall.com)