The 84+ Joshua Reynolds Quotes

I Have Heard Painters Acknowledge, Though In That Acknowledgment No Degradation Of Themselves Was Intended, That They Could Do Better Without Nature Than With Her; Or As They Express Themselves, 'that It Only Put Them Out.

I Do Not See In What Manner Practice Alone Can Be Sufficient For The Production Of Correct, Excellent, And Finished Pictures. Works Deserving This Character Never Were Produced, Nor Ever Will Arise, From Memory Alone.

However Minutely Labored The Picture May Be In The Detail, The Whole Will Have A False And Even An Unfinished Appearance, At Whatever Distance, Or In Whatever Light It Can Be Shown.

Perhaps Blue, Red, And Yellow Strike The Mind More Forcibly From There Not Being Any Great Union Between Them, As Martial Music, Which Is Intended To Rouse The Nobler Passions.

Though Colour May Appear At First A Part Of Painting Merely Mechanical, Yet It Still Has Its Rules, And Those Grounded Upon That Presiding Principle Which Regulates Both The Great And The Little In The Study Of A Painter.

A Painter Must Compensate The Natural Deficiencies Of His Art. He Has But One Sentence To Utter, But One Moment To Exhibit. He Cannot, Like The Poet Or Historian, Expatiate, And Impress The Mind.

The General Ideas Which Are Expressed In Sketches, Correspond Very Well To The Art Often Used In Poetry... Every Reader Making Out The Detail According To His Own Particular Imagination... But A Painter, When He Represents Eve On Canvas, Is Obliged To Give A Determined Form, And His Own Idea Of Beauty Distinctly Expressed.

An Eye Critically Nice Can Only Be Formed By Observing Well-colored Pictures With Attention.

A Painter Must Not Only Be Of Necessity An Imitator Of The Works Of Nature... But He Must Be As Necessarily An Imitator Of The Works Of Other Painters. This Appears More Humiliating, But Is Equally True; And No Man Can Be An Artist, Whatever He May Suppose, Upon Any Other Terms.

Let Me Recommend To You Not To Have Too Great Dependence On Your Practice Or Memory, However Strong Those Impressions May Have Been Which Are There Deposited. They Are Forever Wearing Out, And Will Be At Least Obliterated, Unless They Are Continually Refreshed And Repaired.

Grandeur Of Effect Is Produced By Two Different Ways Which Seem Entirely Opposed To Each Other. One Is By Reducing The Colors To Little More Than Chiaroscuro... And The Other, By Making The Colors Very Distinct And Forcible... But Still, The Presiding Principle Of Both Those Manners Is Simplicity.

A Passion For His Art, And An Eager Desire To Excel, Will More Than Supply An Artist With The Place Of Method.