Robert Henri Quotes I

“Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them.”

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

“A work of art which inspires us comes from no quibbling or uncertain man. It is the manifest of a very positive nature in great enjoyment, and at the very moment the work was done.”

Image via Wikipedia 

Portrait of Fay Banter by Robert Henri

“For an artist to be interesting to us he must have been interesting to himself. He must have been capable of intense feeling, and capable of profound contemplation.”

“He who has contemplated has meet with himself, is in a state to see into the realities beyond the surfaces of his subject.”

“It is not enough to have thought great things before doing the work. The brush stroke at the moment of contact carries inevitably the exact state of being of the artist at that exact moment into the work, and there it is, to be seen and read by those who can read such signs, and to be read later by the artist himself, with perhaps some surprise, as a revelation of himself.”

“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 … or his drawing pad. Like any hunter he hits or misses. He is looking for what he loves, he tries to capture it. It’s found anywhere, everywhere. Those who are not hunters do not see these things. The hunter is learning to see and to understand-to enjoy.”

“Don’t worry about the rejections. Everybody that’s good has gone through it. Don’t let it matter if your works are not ‘accepted’ at once. The better or more personal you are the less likely they are of acceptance. It is all very fine to have your pictures hung, but you are painting for yourself, not for the jury.”

“Do some great work, Son! Don’t try to paint good landscapes. Try to paint canvases that will show how interesting landscape looks to you-your pleasure in the thing.”

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

“The student is not an isolated force. He benefits by taking and he benefits by giving.”

These quotes are from Robert Henri’s book “The Art Spirit.”