Ernst Gombrich

It took some time before the public learned that to appreciate an Impressionist painting one has to step back a few yards,…

— Ernst Gombrich

All art is image making and all image making is the creation of substitutes.

— Ernst Gombrich

What an artist worries about when he plans his pictures, is something... difficult to put into words. Perhaps he would say he…

— Ernst Gombrich

All artistic discoveries are discoveries not of likenesses but of equivalencies which enable us to see reality in terms of an image…

— Ernst Gombrich

The Painter must leave the beholder something to guess.

— Ernst Gombrich

Seeing depends on knowledge / And knowledge, of course, on your college / But when you are erudite and wise / What…

— Ernst Gombrich

The paintings in our galleries are seen one day in bright sunshine and another day in the dim light of a rainy…

— Ernst Gombrich

During the days of my youth, critics and art-lovers resorted freely to this term of abuse. Even some of the most renowned…

— Ernst Gombrich

There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists.

— Ernst Gombrich

What an artist worries about as he plans his pictures, makes his sketches, or wonders whether he has completed his canvas, is…

— Ernst Gombrich

One cannot explain the existence of genius. It is better to enjoy it.

— Ernst Gombrich

If you ask me what the world looks like to me, it looks like a painting by Pissarro.

— Ernst Gombrich

“We are all inclined to accept conventional forms or colours as the only correct ones. Children sometimes think that stars must be…

— Ernst Gombrich

All the old bogeys of 'dignified subject-matter,' of 'balanced compositions,' of 'correct drawing' were laid to rest. The artist was responsible to…

— Ernst Gombrich

One never finishes learning about art. There are always new things to discover. Great works of art seem to look different every…

— Ernst Gombrich

Art does not copy nature - it suggests it.

— Ernst Gombrich

The photographic enthusiast likes to lure us into a darkened room in order to display his slides on a silver screen. Aided…

— Ernst Gombrich