Joshua Reynolds - Discourses

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A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate, and impress the mind.

Joshua Reynolds

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.

Joshua Reynolds

The art of seeing Nature, or in other words, the art of using Models, is in reality the great object, the point to which all our studies are directed.

Joshua Reynolds

The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labour employed in it, or the mental pleasure produced by it.

Joshua Reynolds

I should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the name of—Michael Angelo.

Joshua Reynolds