Robert Henri > Quotes

“The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
― Robert Henri

“Do whatever you do intensely.”
― Robert Henri

“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

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

“I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.”
― Robert Henri

“Color is only beautiful when it means something.”
― Robert Henri

“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

“There is no art without contemplation.”
― Robert Henri

“A common defect of modern art study is that too many students do not know why they draw.”
― Robert Henri

“A Curve does not exist in its full power until contrasted with a straight line.”
― Robert Henri

“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

“All real works of art look as though they were done in joy.”
― Robert Henri

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

“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

“When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.”
― Robert Henri

“There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual- become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. It is in the nature of all people to have these experiences; but in our time and under the conditions of our lives, it is only a rare few who are able to continue in the experience and find expression for it.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“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.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not.”
― Robert Henri

“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

“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

“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.”
― Robert Henri

“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.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out.”
― Robert Henri

“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

“The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.”
― Robert Henri

“There is weakness in pretending to know more than you know or in stating less than you know.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“Do whatever you do intensely. The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“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

“I am always sorry for the Puritan, for he guided his life against desire and against nature. He found what he thought was comfort, for he believed the spirit's safety was in negation, but he has never given the world one minute's joy or produced one symbol of the beautiful order of nature. He sought peace in bondage and his spirit became a prisoner.”
― Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

“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.”
― Robert Henri