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Artist Quotes by Robert Henri

88 Artist quotes by Robert Henri

All Artist quotes Robert Henri’s page

Students often lack a clear reason for drawing, so the quotes advise keeping a bad sketch until its flaw is understood. They describe art as a natural outcome of being, a way to mark progress into nature and to note what we love. The writer also mentions that great artists are surprised by their own work.

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The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

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Art is an outsider, a gypsy over the face of the earth.

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An artist's job is to surprise himself. Use all means possible.

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Has your drawing the meaning you saw in the model at first?

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Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves.

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No work of Art is really ever finished. They only stop at good places.

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All real works of art look as though they were done in joy.

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There is no art without contemplation.

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Art appreciation, like love, cannot be done by proxy: It is a very personal affair and is necessary to each individual.

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“Pictures tell the story of actual impulse in the artist—or the lack of it.”

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A GREAT PAINTER will know a great deal about how he did it, but still he will say, “How did I do…

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Develop your visual memory. Draw everything you have drawn from the model from memory as well.

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A drawing should be a verdict on the model. Don't confuse a drawing with a map.

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Art after all is but an extension of language to the expression of sensations too subtle for words.

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Renoir had not only a great interest in human character, in human feeling, but had also a great love for the people…

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The big painter is one who has something to say. He thus does not paint men, landscape or furniture, but an idea.

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Your painting is the marking of your progression into nature, a sensation of something you see way beyond the two pretty colors…

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“Some one has defined a work of art as a “thing beautifully done.” I like it better if we cut away the…

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Perhaps whatever there is in my work that may be really interesting to others and surely what is interesting to me, is…

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“A GREAT PAINTER will know a great deal about how he did it, but still he will say, “How did I do…

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When the motives of artists are profound, when they are at their work as a result of deep consideration, when they believe…

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An artist must first of all respond to his subject, he must be filled with emotion toward that subject and then he…

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“We must realize that artists are not in competition with each other. Help the young artists—find for them means to make their…

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“It is a creation of your own mind, not the model. The model is dependent on your idea of her. Your canvas…

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The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of…

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“I have no sympathy with the belief that art is the restricted province of those who paint, sculpt, make music and verse.…

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The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art. He…

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It is harder to see than it is to express. The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see…

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When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive…

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“If a new movement in art comes along be awake to it, study it, but don’t belong to it. Have a personal…

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“The work of the art student is no light matter. Few have the courage and stamina to see it through. You have…

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“In these times there is a powerful demarcation between the surface and the deep currents of human development. Events and upheavals, which…

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Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.

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Art appreciation, like love, cannot be done by proxy.

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I paint for the sole purpose of magnifying the privilege of being alive.

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Keep a bad drawing until by study you have found out why it is bad.

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Don't stop to paint the material, but push on to give the spirit.

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Art is certainly not a pursuit for anyone who wants to make money.

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Paint like a fiend when the idea possesses you.

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A picture should be the expression of the will of the painter.

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More by Robert Henri

It is the common defect of modern art study. Too many students do not know why they draw.

Your only hope of satisfying others is in satisfying yourself. I speak of a great satisfaction, not a commercial satisfaction.

Keep a bad drawing until by study you have found out why it is bad.

Self-education only produces expressions of self.

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and…

Your painting is the marking of your progression into nature, a sensation of something you see way beyond the two pretty colors over there.…

The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to…

There are pictures that manifest education and there are pictures that manifest love.

I am interested in the size of your intention. It is better to overstate the important than to understate it.

“We will be happy if we can get around to the idea that art is not an outside and extra thing; that it is…

“It beats all the things that wealth can give and everything else in the world to say the things one believes, to put them…

“A GREAT PAINTER will know a great deal about how he did it, but still he will say, “How did I do it?” The…

“Concentrate on a single feature – as, build all toward one eye – make all lines lead toward that eye. (Robert Henri)”

Good composition is like a suspension bridge - each line adds strength and takes none away.

Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them.