#portrait

You should regard each meeting with a friend as a sitting he is unwillingly giving you for a portrait - a portrait that, probably, when you or he die, will still be unfinished. And, though this is an absorbing pursuit, nevertheless, the painters are apt to end pessimists. For however handsome and merry may be the face, however rich may be the background, in the first rough sketch of each portrait, yet with every added stroke of the brush, with ever modification of the chiaroscuro, the eyes looking out at you grow more disquieting. And, finally, it is your own face that you are staring at in terror, as in a mirror by candlelight, when all the house is still. ↗

— Hope Mirrlees

#faces #friendship #portraiture #when-all-the-house-is-still #friendship

The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures. ↗

— Salvador Dalí

#pictures #portrait #resemble #true-to-life #life

Few persons who have ever sat for a portrait can have felt anything but inferior while the process is going on. ↗

— Anthony Powell

#ever #felt #few #going #inferior

I used to try to draw my girlfriends. I think one of the most romantic things that anybody can do is draw a portrait of the person you love. ↗

— Nick Carter

#anybody #draw #girlfriends #i #i think

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt. ↗

— Henri Cartier-Bresson

#camera #cult thing #difficult #difficult thing #his

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. ↗

— Imogen Cunningham

#could #does #fill #greatest #i

When you do portraits professionally it's not a desire, it's for money. ↗

— Imogen Cunningham

#money #portraits #professionally #you

I have a portrait of Saint Thomas More in my office. ↗

— Andrew Cuomo

#more #office #portrait #saint #thomas

I collect old portraits. They're all just interesting pictures of people, and you just kind of wonder who they were and what they were. There's a guy - I don't know who he is, but he's wearing a suit. He's got his arms folded, and he looks like he sold insurance or something. I'm just wondering why someone painted him. ↗

— Ellen DeGeneres

#collect #folded #got #guy #him

It takes a long time for a man to look like his portrait. ↗

— James Whistler

#like #long #long time #look #man