Artist Quotes by James Whistler

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

— James Whistler

An artist's career always begins tomorrow

— James Whistler

Art is limited to the infinite, and beginning there cannot progress.

— James Whistler

Listen! There was never an artistic period. There was never an art-loving nation.

— James Whistler

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

— James Whistler

A student of James McNeill Whistler tells the great artist, 'I tend to paint what I see.' Whistler replies, 'Ah! The shock…

— James Whistler

Art happens-no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend upon it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about.

— James Whistler

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he…

— James Whistler

For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure.

— James Whistler

Over and over again did the Attorney-General cry out aloud, in the agony of his cause, 'What is to become of painting…

— James Whistler

Paint should not be applied thick. It should be like a breath on the surface of a pane of glass.

— James Whistler

I remember that at one time I always made a drawing before going to bed!! - Of myself I mean - though…

— James Whistler

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter - perfect in its bud as in its bloom - with no…

— James Whistler

It is for the artist... in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that…

— James Whistler

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king…

— James Whistler

Art happens no hovel is safe from it, no Prince may depend upon it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about, and…

— James Whistler

Art is a goddess of dainty thought, reticent of habit, abjuring all obtrusiveness, purposing in no way to better others. She is,…

— James Whistler

Art should be independent of all clap-trap - should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without…

— James Whistler

Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the…

— James Whistler