John Singer Sargent Quotes

Make the best of an emergency.

It is certain that at certain times talent entirely overcomes thought or poetry.

An artist painting a picture should have at his side a man with a club to hit him over the head when the picture is finished.

Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire.

A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.

Mine is the horny hand of toil.

I do not judge, I only chronicle.

Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents.

A portrait is a picture in which there is just a tiny little something not quite right about the mouth.

The thicker you paint, the more it flows.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

A person with normal eyesight would have nothing to know in the way of 'Impressionism' unless he were in a blinding light or in the dusk or dark.

No small dabs of colour - you want plenty of paint to paint with.

I don't dig beneath the surface for things that don't appear before my own eyes.

You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.