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Quote by Joshua Reynolds

“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.”

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

Work

Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, delivered at the Royal Academy. With a portrait

Comprising a series of discourses, this book delves into the principles and techniques of painting and the broader field of fine arts. The lectures were delivered at the prestigious Royal Academy, and the text is accompanied by a portrait of the speaker. more

Author

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

“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.”

Ideas Character Imagination Produce Expectations Raised Finished Drawing Painter Touched Composition Disappoint Supplies Finished Work

Book:The Complete Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: First President of the Royal Academy : with an Original Memoir, and Anecdotes of the Author

Source: The Complete Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: First President of the Royal Academy : with an Original Memoir, and Anecdotes of the Author

“You are never to lose sight of nature; the instant you do, you are all abroad, at the mercy of every gust of fashion, without knowing or seeing the point to which you ought to steer.”

Loses Knowing Seeing Fashion Ought Mercy Sight Instant Steers

Book:The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Source: The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds

“However minutely labored the picture may be in the detail, the whole will have a false and even an unfinished appearance, at whatever distance, or in whatever light it can be shown.”

May Whole Light Distance Details Appearance Finishing Unfinished

Book:Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, Delivered at the Royal Academy

Source: Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, Delivered at the Royal Academy

“The painter of genius will not waste a moment upon those smaller objects which only serve to catch the sense, to divide the attention, and to counteract his great design of speaking to the heart.”

Heart Moments Attention Design Objects Genius Waste Painter Divides Great Design

Book:Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, Delivered at the Royal Academy

Source: Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts, Delivered at the Royal Academy

“Libya has had to put up with too much from the Arabs for whom it has poured forth both blood and money.”

Too Much Blood Nationalism Libya

Author:Muammar al-Gaddafi

“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.”

Has Beens Values Raised Contrast Imitation Artifice Inspection

Book:The Life and Writings of Sir Joshua Reynolds: First President of the Royal Academy

Source: The Life and Writings of Sir Joshua Reynolds: First President of the Royal Academy

“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.”

Wells Done Hands Understanding Taken Impossible Understood Reluctant Well Done

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

Source: 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

“Raphael and Titian seem to have looked at Nature for different purposes; they both had the power of extending their view to the whole; but one looked only for the general effect as produced by form, the other as produced by colour.”

Different Whole Seems Form Purpose Views Effects Masters Colour Extending Raphael

Book:The literary works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Source: The literary works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

“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.”