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Quote by Joshua Reynolds

Work

Discourses on the Fine Arts Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy

This book compiles a series of lectures that delve into the theoretical and practical aspects of fine arts, offering insights to students at the Royal Academy. more

Author

Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds was an influential English painter, recognized for his portraits and landscapes. Born on July 16, 1723, and passing away on February 23, 1792, Reynolds played a significant role in the development of the English portrait school and is often considered the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. more

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“Our Exhibitions [The Royal Academy] have... a mischievous tendency, by seducing the Painter to an ambition of pleasing indiscriminately the mixed multitude of people who resort to them.”

“From a slight, undetermined drawing, where the ideas of the composition and character are just touched upon, the imagination supplies more than the painter himself, probably, could produce. And we accordingly often find that the finished work disappoints the expectation that was raised from the sketch.”

“By close inspection... you will discover the manner of handling the artifices of contrast, glazing, and other expedients, by which good colorists have raised the value of their tints, and by which nature has been so happily imitated.”

“It is impossible that anything will be well understood or well done that is taken into a reluctant understanding, and executed with a servile hand.”

“It is to Titian we must turn our eyes to find excellence with regard to color, and light and shade, in the highest degree. He was both the first and the greatest master of this art. By a few strokes he knew how to mark the general image and character of whatever object he attempted.”