What Has Pleased And Continues To Please,

Those Who Are Not Conversant In Works Of Art Are Often Surprised At The High Value Set By Connoisseurs On Drawings Which Appear Careless, And In Every Respect Unfinished; But They Are Truly Valuable... They Give The Idea Of A Whole.

But Young Men Have Not Only This Frivolous Ambition Of Being Thought Masters Of Execution, Inciting Them On The One Hand, But Also Their Natural Sloth Tempting Them On The Other. They Are Terrified At The Prospect Before Them, Of The Toil Required To Attain Exactness. The Impetuosity Of Youth Is Disgusted At The Slow Approaches Of A Regular Siege, And Desires, From Mere Impatience Of Labour, To Take The Citadel By Storm. They Wish To Find Some Shorter Path To Excellence, And Hope To Obtain The Reward Of Eminence By Other Means, Than Those Which The Indispensable Rules Of Art Have Prescribed.

If Deceiving The Eye Were The Only Business Of The Art... The Minute Painter Would Be More Apt To Succeed. But It Is Not The Eye, It Is The Mind Which The Painter Of Genius Desires To Address.

Whatever Trips You Make, You Must Still Have Nature In Your Eye.

Simplicity Is An Exact Mediumbetween Too Little And Too Much.