Quotes: Portraits

I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.

I have always loved reading, so was interested in the literary world, and took many literary portraits.

I often concentrate on the eyes and lips, they are great indicators of mood and feeling, and I find that I can project character into my portraits by bringing the viewer’s attention to these areas.

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.

Oh, you ask me, what is the greatest torture of a person who does portraits for a living? I could fill several volumes with nice nasty stories. I don’t know.

I paint German artists whom I admire. I paint their pictures, their work as painters, and their portraits too. But oddly enough, each of these portraits ends up as a picture of a woman with blonde hair. I myself have never been able to work out why this happens.

A person himself believes that all the other portraits are good likenesses except the one of himself.

I do house things. I paint. I do portraits. I also paint my house.

There is nothing that special to see when looking at me. I’m a painter who paints day in day out, from morning till evening – figure pictures and landscapes, more rarely portraits.

You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace; think where man’s glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.