James Whistler Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from James Whistler on Wise Famous Quotes.

The rare few, who, early in life have rid themselves of the friendship of the many.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

The work of a master reeks not of the sweat of the brow - suggests no effort - and is finished from its beginning.

Art happens-no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend upon it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about.

I remember that at one time I always made a drawing before going to bed!! - Of myself I mean - though I finally destroyed most of them.

People will forgive anything but beauty and talent. So I am doubly unpardonable.

If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.

Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.

Nature is usually wrong.

Paint should not be applied thick. It should be like a breath on the surface of a pane of glass.

I am not arguing with you - I am telling you.

As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color.

Listen! There was never an artistic period. There was never an art-loving nation.

To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.

I maintain that two and two would continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.