Robert Henri Quotes

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.

A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.

Good composition is like a suspension bridge - each line adds strength and takes none away.

Paint the flying spirit of the bird rather than its feathers.

The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

Do whatever you do intensely.

The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.

Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.

Pretend you are dancing or singing a picture. A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it.

Let every student enter the school with this advice. No matter how good the school is, his education is in his own hands. All education must be self education.

Art is an outsider, a gypsy over the face of the earth.

Find out what you really like if you can. Find out what is really important to you. Then sing your song. You will have something to sing about and your whole heart will be in the singing.

No work of Art is really ever finished. They only stop at good places.

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.

Art appreciation, like love, cannot be done by proxy: It is a very personal affair and is necessary to each individual.

It is harder to see than it is to express. The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see well into what is before him.

A mountain seen in the haze of distance must nevertheless look a solid heavy mountain.

A weak background is a deadly thing.

It is the common defect of modern art study. Too many students do not know why they draw.

An artist's job is to surprise himself. Use all means possible.

There are pictures that manifest education and there are pictures that manifest love.

Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.

All real works of art look as though they were done in joy.

Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them.

Keep a bad drawing until by study you have found out why it is bad.

A Curve does not exist in its full power until contrasted with a straight line.

There is no art without contemplation.

Art when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing.

Realize that a drawing is not a copy. It is a construction in very different materials. A drawing is an invention.

In a tree there is a spirit of life, a spirit of growth and a spirit of holding its head up.

To have ideas one must have imagination. To express ideas one must have science.

A drawing should be a verdict on the model. Don't confuse a drawing with a map.

Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.

I paint for the sole purpose of magnifying the privilege of being alive.

Don't worry about your originality. You couldn't get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.

Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing.

It's a wrong idea that a master is a finished person. Masters are very faulty; they haven't learned everything and they know it.

Do whatever you do intensely. The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life.

Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves.

An artist must have imagination. An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.

There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.

It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish.

Color is only beautiful when it means something.

The artist should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea

To paint is to know how to put nothing on canvas, and have it look like something when you stand back.

Paint like a fiend when the idea possesses you.

We make our discoveries while in the state [of high functioning] because then we are clear-sighted.

In great art there is no beginning and end in point of time. All time is comprehended.

Self-education only produces expressions of self.