Art Quote by William Makepeace Thackeray

“Is this the main thing that painters of portraits care about? The person on the verge of becoming someone else?”

— Gregory Maguire

“Grant paused in the act of turning the thing over, to consider the face a moment longer. A judge? A soldier? A prince? Someone…

— Josephine Tey

“If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom…

— Oscar Wilde

“The drawing is also a reminder that there’s an artist within each of us, and we must encourage that artist to do the work,…

— Steven Pressfield

The artist who imagines that he puts his best into a portrait in order to produce something good, which will be a pleasure to…

— Jacob Epstein

“And, as in the case of sensible images, if the artist look without distraction upon the archetypal form, not distracted by sight of anything…

— Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

“For as we would wish that a painter who is to draw a beautiful face, in which there is yet some imperfection, should neither…

— Plutarch

“I had not then acquired the technique that I flatter myself now enables me to deal competently with the works of modern artist. If…

— W. Somerset Maugham

The responsibility of the artist consists in perfecting his work so that it may become attractively disinteresting.

— John Cage

The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a…

— Benjamin Haydon

“I think that a good portrait reveals a suggestion of the subject’s mind, and not just a representation of how they look. It’s by…

— Elizabeth Ross

“I do implore my readers, therefore, not to be more clever than their author, and see portraits where, quite honestly, none are intended. C.B.”

— Christianna Brand