The picture waits for my verdict; it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claim to praise.

One picture in ten thousand, perhaps, ought to live in the applause of mankind, from generation to generation until the colors fade and blacken out of sight or the canvas rot entirely away.

I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can shew me in the world.

The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same.

How vain painting is-we admire the realistic depiction of objects which in their original state we don't admire at all.

You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.

A little amateur painting in water-colour shows the innocent and quiet mind.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Not a day without a line.

It's so good and so terrible to attack a blank canvas.