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Robert Henri Quotes | Quotes said by Robert Henri

  • Robert Henri Quote #1

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


  • Robert Henri Quote #2

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #3

    A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.

  • Robert Henri Quote #4

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #5

    All my life I have refused to be for or against parties, for or against nations, for or against people. I never seek novelty or the eccentric; I do not go from land to land to contrast civilizations. I seek only, wherever I go, for symbols of greatness, and as I have already said, they may be found in the eyes of a child, in the movement of a gladiator, in the heart of a gypsy, in twilight in Ireland or in moonrise over the deserts. To hold the spirit of greatness is in my mind what the world was created for. The human body is beautiful as this spirit shines through, and art is great as it translates and embodies this spirit.

  • Robert Henri Quote #6

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #7

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #8

    Art is simply a result of expression during right feeling. It's a result of a grip on the fundamentals of nature, the spirit of life, the constructive force, the secret of growth, a real understanding of the relative importance of things, order, balance. Any material will do. After all, the object is not to make art, but to be in the wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

  • Robert Henri Quote #9

    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.

  • Robert Henri Quote #10

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #11

    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.

  • Robert Henri Quote #12

    Be game--take a chance--don't hide behind veils and veils of discretion... Go forward with what you have to say, expressing things as you see them. You are new evidence, fresh and young. Your work, the spirit of youth, you are the progress of human evolution. If age dulls you it will be time enough then to be ponderous and heavy--or quit. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be young, to continue growing--not to settle and accept.

  • Robert Henri Quote #13

    Because we are saturated with life, because we are human, our strongest motive is life, humanity; and the stronger the motive back of the line the stronger, and therefore more beautiful, the line will be.

  • Robert Henri Quote #14

    Cherish your own emotions and never under-value them.

    We are not here to do what has already been done.

  • Robert Henri Quote #15

    Color is only beautiful when it means something.

  • Robert Henri Quote #16

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #17

    Do whatever you do intensely.

  • Robert Henri Quote #18

    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.

  • Robert Henri Quote #19

    Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.

  • Robert Henri Quote #20

    Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out.

  • Robert Henri Quote #21

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

  • Robert Henri Quote #22

    Good composition is like a suspension bridge; each line adds strength and takes none away... Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition.

  • Robert Henri Quote #23

    Houses, housetops, like human beings have wonderful character. The lives of housetops. The wear of the seasons. The country is beautiful, young, growing things. The majesty of trees. The backs of tenement houses are living documents.

  • Robert Henri Quote #24

    I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.

  • Robert Henri Quote #25

    I have no sympathy with the belief that art is the restricted province of those who paint, sculpt, make music and verse. I hope we will come to an understanding that the material used is only incidental, that there is artist in every man; and that to him the possibility of development and of expression and the happiness of creation is as much a right and as much a duty to himself, as to any of those who work in the especially ticketed ways.

  • Robert Henri Quote #26

    If a certain activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state.

  • Robert Henri Quote #27

    If we are cultivating fruit in an orchard, we wish that particular fruit to grow in its own way; we give it the soil it needs, the amount of moisture, the amount of care, but we do not treat the apple tree as we would the pear tree or the peach tree as we would the vineyard on the hillside. Each is allowed the freedom of its own kind and the result is the perfection of growth which can be accomplished in no other way. The time must come when the same freedom is allowed the individual; each in his own way must develop according to nature's purpose, the body must be but the channel for the expression of purpose, interest, emotion, labor. Everywhere freedom must be the sign of reason.

  • Robert Henri Quote #28

    In every human being there is the artist, and whatever his activity, he has an equal chance with any to express the result of his growth and his contact with life. I don't believe any real artist cares whether what he does is 'art' or not. Who, after all, knows what art is?

  • Robert Henri Quote #29

    Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves. ... Lines give birth to lines. Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing. ... Make a drawing flow, stopping sometimes, and going on. ... Search for the simple constructive forces, line the lines of a suspension bridge. Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out. ... Have purpose in the places where lines stop.

  • Robert Henri Quote #30

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

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