Quotes from Robert Henri

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

There is no art without contemplation.

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

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

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.

Art is the giving by each man of his evidence to the world. Those who wish to give, love to give, discover the pleasure of giving. Those who give are tremendously strong.

Art tends toward balance, order, judgment of relative values, the laws of growth, the economy of living – very good things for anyone to be interested in.

Art after all is but an extension of language to the expression of sensations too subtle for words.

All manifestations of art are but landmarks in the progress of the human spirit toward a thing but as yet sensed and far from being possessed.

A common defect of modern art study is that too many students do not know why they draw.

Concentrate on a single feature – as, build all toward one eye – make all lines lead toward that eye. (Robert Henri)

Sometimes we do grip the concert in a human head, and so hold it that in a way we get a record of it into paint, but the vision and expressing of one day will not do for the next.

Everything depends on the attitude of the artist toward his subject. It is essential.

You will never draw the sense of a thing unless you are feeling it at the time you work.

Be a warhorse for work and enjoy even the struggle against defeat.

The most vital things in the look of a landscape endure only for a moment. Work should be done from memory; memory of that vital moment.

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

The true artist regards his work as a means of talking with men [and women], of saying his say to himself and to others. It is not a question of pay.

If you work from memory, you are most likely to put in your real feeling.

Work always as if you were a master, expect from yourself a masterpiece.

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

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.

Self-education only produces expressions of self.

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated.