Robert Henri Quotes

The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art.

Your only hope of satisfying others is in satisfying yourself. I speak of a great satisfaction, not a commercial satisfaction.

Don't stop to paint the material, but push on to give the spirit.

Educate yourself. Don't let me educate you

In certain books—some way in the first few paragraphs you know that you have met a brother.

The good thing about painting from memory is that so much is forgotten.

Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not.

Whatever you feel or think your exact state at the exact moment of your brush touching the canvas is in some way registered in that stroke.

Colors are beautiful when they are significant.

To be free, to be happy and to be fruitful, can only be attained through sacrifice of many common but overestimated things.

Self-acquainta nce is a rare condition.

Artists must be men of wit, consciously or unconsciously philosophers; read, study and think a great deal of life.

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

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

Fight with yourself when you paint, not with the model. A student is one who struggles with himself for order.

Pretend you are dancing or singing a picture.

Count on big lines to express your ideas.

The picture that looks as if it were done without an effort may have been a perfect battlefield in its making.

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.

Your style is the way you talk in paint.

The more simply you see, the more simply you will render. People see too much, scatteringly.

I have heard it very often said that an artist does not need intelligence, that his is the province of the soul

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.

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.

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

By my teaching I hope to inspire you to personal activity and to present your vision.

Do not expect pictures to say the expected; some of the best will have surprises for you, which will, at first, shock you.

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

Art is certainly not a pursuit for anyone who wants to make money.

Finished persons are very common - people who are closed up, quite satisfied that there is little more to learn

All is as beautiful as we think it.

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)

We are troubled by having two selves, the inner and the outer. The outer one is rather dull and lets great things go by.

We read books. They make us think. It matters very little whether we agree with the books or not.

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.

Cherish your own emotions and never under-value them. We are not here to do what has already been done.

The pursuit of happiness ... is the greatest feat man has to accomplish.

Cherish your emotions and never undervalue them.

All outward success when it has value is but the inevitable result of an inward success of full living full play and enjoyment of one's faculties.