Thomas Eakins Quotes

• A teacher can do very little for a pupil and should only be thankful if he don't hinder him, and the greater the master, mostly the less he can say.

  Thomas Eakins

  Teacher, Being Thankful, Littles

  Henry Adams, Thomas Eakins (2005). “Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist”, p.150, Oxford University Press on Demand

  48 Copy quote

• The big artist .. . keeps a sharp eye on Nature and steals her tools.

  Thomas Eakins

  Art, Eye, Tools

  "Thomas Eakins: artist of Philadelphia".

  13 Copy quote

• Strain your brain more than your eye... You can copy a thing to a certain limit. Then you must use intellect.

  Thomas Eakins

  Eye, Brain, Use

  "Thomas Eakins". Book by Lloyd Goodrich, 1933.

  14 Copy quote

• In mathematics the complicated things are reduced to simple things. So it is in painting.

  Thomas Eakins

  Simple, Simplicity, Painting

  Thomas Eakins, Lloyd Goodrich, Whitney Museum of American Art (1970). “Thomas Eakins: retrospective exhibition, September 22 to November 21, 1970, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York”

  10 Copy quote

• How beautiful an old woman's skin is! All those wrinkles!

  Thomas Eakins

  Beautiful, Wrinkles, Skins

  11 Copy quote

• Strain your brain more than your eye.

  Thomas Eakins

  Eye, Thinking, Brain

  Akela Reason, Thomas Eakins (2010). “Thomas Eakins and the Uses of History”, p.93, University of Pennsylvania Press

  17 Copy quote

• Enthusiasm for one's goal lessens the disagreeableness of working toward it.

  Thomas Eakins

  Goal, Enthusiasm

  7 Copy quote

• I have never discovered that the nude could be studied in any way except the way I have adopted. All the muscles must be pointed out. To do this all the drapery must be removed.

  Thomas Eakins

  Way, Muscles, Adopted

  "Eakins". Book by Sylvan Schendler, ch. 10, 1967.

  4 Copy quote

• Of course, it is well to go abroad and see the works of the old masters, but Americans... must strike out for themselves, and only by doing this will we create a great and distinctly American art.

  Thomas Eakins

  Art, Patriotism, Masters

  Thomas Eakins, Lloyd Goodrich, Whitney Museum of American Art (1970). “Thomas Eakins: retrospective exhibition, September 22 to November 21, 1970, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York”

  7 Copy quote

• No man, and least of all myself, could ever disentangle the feelings that animated him.

  Thomas Eakins

  Men, Feelings, Animated

  4 Copy quote

• When you first commence painting everything is a muddle. Even the commonest colors seem to have the devil in them.

  Thomas Eakins

  Color, Devil, Firsts

  Henry Adams, Thomas Eakins (2005). “Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist”, p.150, Oxford University Press on Demand

  11 Copy quote

• The brush is a more powerful and rapid tool than the point or the stump... the main thing that the brush secures is the instant grasp of the grand construction of a figure.

  Thomas Eakins

  Powerful, Tools, Construction

  8 Copy quote

• My honors are misunderstanding, pesecution and neglect, enhanced because unsought.

  Thomas Eakins

  Honor, Neglect, Misunderstanding

  8 Copy quote

• When a man paints a naked woman he gives her less than poor Nature did. I can conceive of few circumstances wherein I would have to paint a woman naked, but if I did I would not mutilate her for double the money. She is the most beautiful thing there is except a naked man, but I never saw a study of one exhibited.

  Thomas Eakins

  Beautiful, Men, Giving

  Thomas Eakins, Lloyd Goodrich, Whitney Museum of American Art (1970). “Thomas Eakins: retrospective exhibition, September 22 to November 21, 1970, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York”

  8 Copy quote

• I taught in the Academy from the opening of the schools until I was turned out, a period much longer than I should have permitted myself to remain there. My honors are misunderstanding, persecution and neglect, enhanced because unsought.

  Thomas Eakins

  School, Should Have, Honor

  Letter to Harrison Morris, April 23, 1894.

  4 Copy quote

• I once painted a concert singer and on the chestnut frame I carved the opening bars of Mendelssohn's Rest in the Lord. It was ornamental unobtrusive and to musicians I think it emphasized the expression of the face and pose of the figure.

  Thomas Eakins

  Thinking, Expression, Musician

  52 Copy quote

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