"It seems to be a law of nature that no man, unless he has some obvious physical deformity, ever is loth to sit for his portrait."

Beerbohm, Sir Max · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it."

Cromwell, Oliver · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk."

Dickens, Charles · Portraits · 1 fans >>
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"Sir Joshua would have been glad to take her portrait; and he would have had an easier task than the historian at least in this, that he would not have had to represent the truth of change --only to give stability to one beautiful moment."

Eliot, George · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination."

Haydon, Benjamin · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world."

Johnson, Samuel · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones."

Klee, Paul · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait."

Picasso, Pablo · Portraits · 1 fans >>
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"Few persons who have ever sat for a portrait can have felt anything but inferior while the process is going on."

Powell, Anthony · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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"He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog."

Rilke, Rainer Maria · Portraits · 0 fans >>
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