Robert Henri Quotes

A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world.

What I have to do is utilize as best I can the ideas which objects suggest to me, connect, fuse, and color in my way the shadows they cast within me, illumine them from the inside. And since of necessity my vision is quite different from that of the next man, my painting will interpret things in an entirely different manner even though it makes use of the same elements.

The true painter strives to paint what can only be seen through his world.

Everything I paint is a portrait, whatever the subject.

I've always been so surprised by how people interpret my photos in context.

I paint what I see, not what a camera would see.

What I wish to show when I paint is the way I see things with my eyes and in my heart.

Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.

When I first drew him I had eyes in there and it didn't look right.

Humans can really reveal themselves through what they choose to see as the most important or meaningful detail in an image.

You see what you think, you see what you feel, you are what you see If with the camera you can make others see it - that is photography.

Photography... is either an expression of a cosmic vision, an embodiment of a life movement or it is nothing - to me. (1919)

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.

The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.

Art begins . . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.

Abstract means literally to draw from or separate. In this sense every artist is abstract for he must create his own work from his visual impressions. A realistic or non-objective approach makes no difference. The result is what counts.

A drawing should be a verdict on the model. Don't confuse a drawing with a map.

Let's put it this way - I photograph what interests me all the time. I live with the pictures to see what that thing looks like photographed. I'm saying the same thing; I'm not changing it.

It is with color that you render light, though you must also feel this light, have it within yourself.

The role of the painter . . . is to project that which sees itself in him.

I'd always wanted to know the difference between a mark that was art and one that wasn't.

The living model never answers well the idea or impressions the painter wishes to express; one must, therefore, learn to do without one, and for that, you must acquire facility, furnish one's memory to the point of infinitude, and make numerous drawings after the old masters.

The subject should be observed more for shape and color than for drawing... precise drawing is dry and hampers the impression of the whole, it destroys all sensations.

When I make my drawings... the path traced by my pencil on the sheet of paper is, to some extent, analogous to the gesture of a man groping his way in the darkness.

I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions.