Artist Quotes by John Ruskin

“All great art is praise.”

— John Ruskin

All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.

— John Ruskin

Science studies the relations of things to each other: but art studies only their relations to man.

— John Ruskin

Drawing is a means of obtaining and communicating knowledge

— John Ruskin

I believe that the sight is a more important thing than the drawing...

— John Ruskin

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

— John Ruskin

Never has interest in art been so high, and never has quality been so low.

— John Ruskin

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

— John Ruskin

English artists are usually entirely ruined by residence in Italy.

— John Ruskin

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

— John Ruskin

Your art is to be the praise of something that you love. It may only be the praise of a shell or…

— John Ruskin

Great art is precisely that which never was, nor will be taught, it is preeminently and finally the expression of the spirits…

— John Ruskin

Sculpture is not the mere cutting of the form of anything in stone; it is the cutting of the effect of it.…

— John Ruskin

Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.

— John Ruskin

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

— John Ruskin

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.”

— John Ruskin

An artist should be well read in the best books, and thoroughly high bred, both in heart and bearing. In a word,…

— John Ruskin

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

— John Ruskin

The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful,…

— John Ruskin

High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature; but in seeking throughout nature for 'whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things…

— John Ruskin

It is not possible to find a landscape, which if painted precisely as it is, will not make an impressive picture. No…

— John Ruskin

The eye is continually influenced by what it cannot detect; nay, it is not going too far, to say that it is…

— John Ruskin

If it is the love of that which your work represents--if, being a landscape painter, it is love of hills and trees…

— John Ruskin

Remember always, in painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the fewer your words;…

— John Ruskin

He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object…

— John Ruskin

The sculptor must paint with his chisel; half his touches are not to realize, but to put power into, the form. They…

— John Ruskin

“Now observe; if the artist does not understand the sacredness of the truth of Impression, and supposes that, once quitting hold of…

— John Ruskin

“. . . no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding…

— John Ruskin

The names of great painters are like passing-bells: in the name of Velasquez you hear sounded the fall of Spain; .in the…

— John Ruskin

Life without industry is guilt. Industry without Art is Brutality.

— John Ruskin

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.

— John Ruskin

All great art is the expression of man's delight in God's work, not his own.

— John Ruskin

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.

— John Ruskin

Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline.

— John Ruskin

If you can draw the stone rightly, everything within reach of art is also within yours.

— John Ruskin

Engraving then, is, in brief terms, the Art of Scratch.

— John Ruskin

No amount of pay ever made a good soldier, a good teacher, a good artist, or a good workman.

— John Ruskin

You will never love art well until you love what she mirrors better.

— John Ruskin

In painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter your manner.

— John Ruskin

The sculptor does not work for the anatomist, but for the common observer of life and nature.

— John Ruskin