Quote

Don't talk of what you are 'going to do!' Do it!

William Morris Hunt

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Talk
Going
Advice

More quotes by William Morris Hunt

Image
The mission of art is to represent nature not to imitate her.
William Morris Hunt
Image
Give up the idea of 'color' for awhile! Consider masses - values, only... One dark and one light place in every picture.
William Morris Hunt
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Elaboration is not beauty, and sand-paper never finished a piece of bad work.
William Morris Hunt
Image
Imagination comes in after we have experience.
William Morris Hunt
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Most of us live for the critic, and he lives on us. He doesn't sacrifice himself. He gets so much a line for writing a criticism. If the birds should read the newspapers, they would all take to changing their notes. The parrots would exchange with the nightingales, and what a farce it would be!
William Morris Hunt
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I tell you it's no joke to paint a portrait. I wonder that I am not more timid when I begin. I feel almost certain that I can do it. It seems very simple. I don't think of the time that is sure to come when I almost despair, when the whole thing seems hopeless.
William Morris Hunt
Image
Inspiration is nothing without work.
William Morris Hunt
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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