Robert Henri

"It is harder to see than it is to express. The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see well into what is before him."

"Art cannot be separated from life. It is the expression of the greatest need of which life is capable, and we value art not because of the skilled product, but because of its revelation of a life's experience."

"Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you."

"Different men are moved or left cold by lines according to the difference in their natures. What moves you is beautiful to you."

"There is only one reason for art in America, and that is that the people of America learn the means of expressing themselves in their own time, and their own land."

Robert Henri's open letter to the Art Students League about Thomas Eakins, (29 October 1917):

Thomas Eakins was a man of great character. He was a man of iron will and his will to paint and to carry out his life as he thought it should go. This he did. It cost him heavily but in his works we have the precious result of his independence, his generous heart and his big mind. Eakins was a deep student of life, and with a great love he studied humanity frankly. He was not afraid of what his study revealed to him.

In the matter of ways and means of expression, the science of technique, he studied most profoundly, as only a great master would have the will to study. His vision was not touched by fashion. He struggled to apprehend the constructive force in nature and to employ in his works the principles found. His quality was honesty. "Integrity" is the word which seems best to fit him. Personally I consider him the greatest portrait painter America has produced.