Quote

Painting is the only universal language. All nature is creation's picture book. Painting alone can describe every thing which can be seen, and suggest every emotion which can be felt. Art reaches back into the babyhood of time, and is man's only lasting monument.

William Morris Hunt

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William Morris Hunt
Age: 55 †
Born: 1824
Born: March 31
Died: 1879
Died: September 8
Artist
Drawer
Graphic Artist
Lithographer
Painter
Sculptor
Brattleboro
Vermont
W. M. Hunt
William M. Hunt
William Hunt
wm morris hunt
Thing
Seen
Suggest
Every
Alone
Describe
Men
Language
Lasting
Felt
Picture
Time
Art
Universal
Nature
Creation
Babyhood
Back
Painting
Monument
Book
Emotion
Reaches

More quotes by William Morris Hunt

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When an artist leaves his work to amuse people, he loses his time and their respect. If people are to be amused by artists, it must be by employing them in their legitimate occupation.
William Morris Hunt
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You can always draw as well as you know how to. I flatter myself that I feel more than I express on canvas but I know that is not so.
William Morris Hunt
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There is force and vitality in a first sketch from life which the after-work rarely has. You want a picture to seize you as forcibly as if a man had seized you by the shoulder! It should impress you like reality!
William Morris Hunt
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There is force and vitality in a first sketch from life which the after-work rarely has... In your sketches keep the first vivid impression! Add no details that shall weaken it! Look first for the big things! 1st. Proportions! 2nd. Values - or masses of light and shade. 3rd. Details that will not spoil the beginnings!
William Morris Hunt
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Give up the idea of 'color' for awhile! Consider masses - values, only... One dark and one light place in every picture.
William Morris Hunt
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The artist is an interpreter of Nature. People learn to love Nature through pictures. To the artist, nothing is in vain nothing beneath his notice. If he is great enough, he will exalt every subject which he treats.
William Morris Hunt
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Imagination comes in after we have experience.
William Morris Hunt
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Believe that time is going to help you do what you want.
William Morris Hunt
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The mission of art is to represent nature not to imitate her.
William Morris Hunt
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Let me give you a few simple rules for learning to draw. First, see of what shape the whole thing is. Next, put in the line that marks the movement of the whole. Don't have more than one movement in a figure you can't patch parts together. Simple lines then simple values. Establish the fact of the whole. Is it square, oblong, cube, or what is it?
William Morris Hunt
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I don't like persuaded sitters. I never could paint a cat if the cat had any scruples, religious, superstitious, or otherwise, about sitting.
William Morris Hunt
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Beauty is that little something that fills the whole world, and is contained neither in a single straight nose, a long eyelash, nor a blue mountain. Some see it in a leg of mutton, others in a compound fracture and to expect others to accept one's own definition of it is as absurd as to expect all humanity to use the same toilet-brush.
William Morris Hunt
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It's impossible to make a picture without values. Values are the basis. If they are not, tell me what is the basis.
William Morris Hunt
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You can't do a fine thing without having seen fine examples.
William Morris Hunt
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How are we going to make painters by lecturing to them? We are going to make questioners, doubters, and talkers. We are going to make painters by painting ourselves, and by showing the paintings of others. By working frankly from our convictions, we are going to make them work frankly from theirs.
William Morris Hunt
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Compare constantly, lines and angles... Hold looking-glass before your model and your drawing. Take a second's glance only, and see if the impression be the same. If it be not, ask, 'What is the difference?
William Morris Hunt
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Don't put needless expense into painting a head! Don't try to match tints! Rose and pearly colours blend into each other so that no one can unite them if painted separately. Keep the impression of your subject as one thing!
William Morris Hunt
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It gives a fellow an awful shiver to hear the first shovelful of dirt and gravel rattle down upon the coffin but after it is covered, it falls gently and makes no sound. The feeling of rest is perfect. There's no more nagging, no more pain!
William Morris Hunt
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It's no easy matter to paint a background. I venture to say that the old painters had more difficulty with their grounds than with their figures. You know the story of Vandyke brought to Rubens with this recommendation: 'He already knows how to paint a background.' 'That is more than I can do!' was the reply.
William Morris Hunt
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Elaboration is not beauty, and sand-paper never finished a piece of bad work.
William Morris Hunt