Artist Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh

Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see.

— Vincent Van Gogh

Art demands constant observation.

— Vincent Van Gogh

The great artist is the simplifier.

— Vincent Van Gogh

One must spoil as many canvases as one succeeds with.

— Vincent Van Gogh

There is nothing more artistic than loving people.

— Vincent Van Gogh

Drawing is the root of everything.

— Vincent Van Gogh

Art is jealous, and demands our whole strength ... .

— Vincent Van Gogh

Oh! I must somehow manage to do a figure in a few strokes.

— Vincent Van Gogh

For great things do not done just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.

— Vincent Van Gogh

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

— Vincent Van Gogh

Only he can be an artist who has a religion all his own - an original way of viewing infinity.

— Vincent Van Gogh

It is difficult to know oneself, but it isn't easy to paint oneself either.

— Vincent Van Gogh

The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves.

— Vincent Van Gogh

Drawing is the root of everything, and the time spent on that is actually all profit.

— Vincent Van Gogh

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the…

— Vincent Van Gogh

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

— Vincent Van Gogh

I don't know if I can convey the postman as I feel him... Unfortunately he cannot pose, and a painting demands an…

— Vincent Van Gogh

I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are…

— Vincent Van Gogh

It's as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint it. There is the art of lines and…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Painting is a faith and that it brings with it the duty to pay no heed to public opinion - and that…

— Vincent Van Gogh

To try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Art is something greater and higher than our own skill or knowledge or learning. That art is something which, though produced by…

— Vincent Van Gogh

An artist need not be a minister or a collector in church, but he must have a warm heart for people, and…

— Vincent Van Gogh

I believe it is one's duty to paint the rich and magnificent aspects of nature. We need gaiety and happiness, hope and…

— Vincent Van Gogh

I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study…

— Vincent Van Gogh

However, the painter of the future will be a colorist, such as has never yet existed. Manet was working towards it, but…

— Vincent Van Gogh

“Against all expectations, the symptoms of Van Gogh’s mental illness are conspicuous by their almost complete absence from his letters. Much as…

— Vincent van Gogh

I see more and more that my work goes infinitely better when I am properly fed, and the paints are there, and…

— Vincent Van Gogh

I began to paint again, even though I could barely hold the brush, but knowing exactly what I wanted to paint, I…

— Vincent Van Gogh

It isn't an easy job to paint oneself - at any rate if it is to be different from a photograph. And…

— Vincent Van Gogh

All art is a gift. It is first of all a gift that the maker can do it. It is then a…

— Vincent Van Gogh

I am an artist... It's self-evident that what that word implies is looking for something all the time without ever finding it…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Christ alone, of all the philosophers, magicians, etc., has affirmed eternal life as the most important certainty, the infinity of time, the…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how…

— Vincent Van Gogh

It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The…

— Vincent Van Gogh

But I must work on in full calmness and serenity... The world concerns me only in so far as I feel a…

— Vincent Van Gogh

Art is to console those who are broken by life.

— Vincent Van Gogh

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

— Vincent Van Gogh

In a sense I'm glad that I've never learned how to paint.

— Vincent Van Gogh