Albert Pinkham Ryder
Quotations

"Imitation is not inspiration, and inspiration only can give birth to a work of art. The least of man's original emanations is better that the best of a borrowed thought."

 

"When my father placed the box of colors and brushes in my hands, and I stood before my easel with its square of stretched canvas, I realized that I had in my possession the wherewith to create a masterpiece that would live throughout the coming ages. The great masters had no more!"

 

"Modern art must strike out from the old. The new is not revealed to those whose eyes are fastened in worship upon the old. "

 

"The artist should fear to become the slave of detail. "

 

"Imitation is not inspiration, and inspiration only can give birth to a work of art. The least of man’s original emanations is better that the best of a borrowed thought. "

 

"The artist needs but a roof, a crust of bread, and his easel, and all the rest God gives him in abundance. He must live to paint and not paint to live. "

 

"Have you ever seen an inch worm crawl up a leaf or twig, and then clinging to the very end, revolve in the air, feeling for something to reach...? That’s like me. I am trying to find something out there beyond the place on which I have a footing. "

 

"The artist has only to remain true to his dream and it will possess his work in such a manner that it will resemble the work of no other man."

 

"What avails a storm cloud accurate in form and color if the storm is not therein?"