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The mission of art is to represent nature not to imitate her.
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
Imitate
Represent
Mission
Missions
Art
Nature
More quotes by William Morris Hunt
Elaboration is not beauty, and sand-paper never finished a piece of bad work.
William Morris Hunt
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
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
There's lots of fun in this world, after all. And if there isn't, there is in the next. And we're going there, sure.
William Morris Hunt
You can't do a fine thing without having seen fine examples.
William Morris Hunt
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
Nature is economical. She puts her lights and darks only where she needs them.
William Morris Hunt
Give up the idea of 'color' for awhile! Consider masses - values, only... One dark and one light place in every picture.
William Morris Hunt
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
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
Children should learn to draw as they learn to write, and such a mystery should not be made of it. They should be encouraged, not flattered... then [later in life] double the effort is required to get the facility which might have been gained insensibly.
William Morris Hunt
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
Art teaches you the philosophy of life, and if you can't learn it from art, you can't learn it at all. It shows you that there is no perfection. There is light, and there is shadow. Everything is in half tint.
William Morris Hunt
Strive for simplicity! Don't have the face a checkerboard of tints! Use such colors as nature uses, but not try to keep them distinct! Your work may be called monotonous, but one tone is better than many which do not harmonize.
William Morris Hunt
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
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
How are things visible? Can you see an egg against a white background? Not by drawing a line around it can you make it evident.
William Morris Hunt
What is nobler than a man wresting and wringing his bread from the stubborn soil by the sweat of his brow and the break of his back for his wife and children!
William Morris Hunt
You are to draw not reality, but the appearance of reality!
William Morris Hunt
Don't talk of what you are 'going to do!' Do it!
William Morris Hunt
