PAINTING QUOTES IV
quotations about painting
The painter is, as to the execution of his work, a mechanic; but as to his conception, his spirit, and design, he is hardly below even the poet in liberal art.
RICHARD STEELE
The Guardian, March 12, 1713
I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Johnsonian Miscellanies
He paints a dolphin in the woods, a boar in the waves.
HORACE
Ars Poetica
If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.
PHILIP GUSTON
attributed, Twentieth-Century Artists on Art
A man cannot paint portraits till he has seen faces.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
PABLO PICASSO
attributed, Cubism: a history and an analysis
The painter with an original vision is always opposed by the schools. That is, at first. But when he wins out, then the schools merely take over his technique and use it as a club to put down the next creator. And so it goes.
HORACE HOLLEY
Pictures
The painter's work will be of little merit if he takes the painting of others as his standard, but if he studies from nature he will produce good fruits.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life