One inconvenience... may attend bold and arduous attempts: frequent failure may discourage. This evil, however, is not more pernicious than the slow proficiency which is the natural consequence of too easy tasks. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what grammar is in literature, a general preparation for whatever the student may afterward choose for more particular application. The power of drawing, modeling, and using colors, is very properly called the… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Grandeur of effect is produced by two different ways which seem entirely opposed to each other. One is by reducing the colors to little… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
And he who does not know himself does not know others, so it may be said with equal truth, that he who does not… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The general ideas which are expressed in sketches, correspond very well to the art often used in poetry... every reader making out the detail… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Our studies will be forever, in a very great degree, under the direction of chance; like travelers, we must take what we can get,… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
Style in painting is the same as in writing; a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
The distinct blue, red, and yellow colors... though they have not the kind of harmony which is produced by a variety of broken and… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
I do not see in what manner practice alone can be sufficient for the production of correct, excellent, and finished pictures. Works deserving this… — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
There can be no doubt but that he who has the most materials has the greatest means of invention... — Joshua Reynolds Copy Share Image
