Quotessence
Home / Authors / Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds Quotes

Painter

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtMindMayPainterMenExcellenceColorProduceTasteWellsDegreesEffectsEyeIfsIndustryLaborLittlesObservationPaintingArt Is

Famous Joshua Reynolds Quotes

“One inconvenience... may attend bold and arduous attempts: frequent failure may discourage. This evil, however, is not more pernicious than the slow proficiency which is the natural consequence of too easy tasks.”

MayEvilEasyNaturalAmbitionConsequenceTasksDiscouragingInconveniencePerniciousProficiencyNatural ConsequencesEasy Tasks
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
Create image

“Though colour may appear at first a part of painting merely mechanical, yet it still has its rules, and those grounded upon that presiding principle which regulates both the great and the little in the study of a painter.”

FirstsMayLittlesStillsPrinciplesStudyPaintingPainterColourGrounded
Book:Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, delivered at the Royal Academy. With a portrait
Create image

“By leaving a student to himself he may... be led to undertake matters above his strength, but the trial will at least have this advantage: it will discover to himself his own deficiencies and this discovery alone is a very considerable acquisition.”

MayMatterTeachingStudentsDiscoveryAdvantageLeavingTrialsAcquisitionDeficiency
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
Create image

“Those who, either from their own engagements and hurry of business, or from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected looking out of themselves, as far as my experience and observation reach, have from that time not only ceased to advance, and improve in their performances, but have gone backward. They may be compared to men who have lived upon their principal, till they are reduced to beggary, and left without resources.”

MenMayLeftGoneResourcesPerformancesObservationVanityEngagementPrincipalNeglectedConceitIndolenceBeggary
Author:Joshua Reynolds
Create image

“The first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what grammar is in literature, a general preparation for whatever the student may afterward choose for more particular application. The power of drawing, modeling, and using colors, is very properly called the language of the art.”

FirstsMayArtLiteratureLanguageStudentsParticularColorPaintingDegreesDrawingPreparationApplicationGrammarModelingProficiency
Book:The Life and Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds
Create image