Robert Henri Quotations

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

You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.

Beauty is an intangible thing; can not be fixed on the surface, and the wear and tear of old age on the body cannot defeat it. Nor will a "pretty" face make it, for "pretty" faces are often dull and empty, and beauty is never dull and it fills all spaces.

There is weakness in pretending to know more than you know or in stating less than you know.

You pass people on the street, some are for you, some are not.

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

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

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

Many things that come into the world are not looked into. The individual says 'My crowd doesn't run that way.' I say, don't run with crowds.

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