26 Quotes by John Singer Sargent

An artist painting a picture should have at his side a man with a club to hit him over the head when the picture is finished.

I do not judge, I only chronicle.

Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents.

No small dabs of colour – you want plenty of paint to paint with.

A person with normal eyesight would have nothing to know in the way of ‘Impressionism’ unless he were in a blinding light or in the dusk or dark.

You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.

I don’t dig beneath the surface for things that don’t appear before my own eyes.

The habit of breaking up one’s colour to make it brilliant dates from further back than Impressionism – Couture advocates it in a little book called ‘Causeries d’Atelier’ written about 1860 – it is part of the technique of Impressionism but used for quite a different reason.