Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Simply copying nature does not create great art or move the viewer.
In plain terms
Copying nature exactly is not enough to make great art.
What can you take from it?
Add your vision to nature to inspire others.

Where it applies

  • photography
  • realistic painting
  • illustration

Putting it to work

  • add emotional tone
  • exaggerate features
  • choose angles

Questions to consider

  • What does this work say?
  • Does it move you or just show?

Another view

Accurate recording has value in documentation and realism.

More from Joshua Reynolds

  1. You must have no dependence on your own genius. If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply…

    Permalink to quote #3
  2. Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

    Permalink to quote #5
  3. Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing ca…

    Permalink to quote #2

Related quotes

  1. J'allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'etais ton feal.

    Arthur RimbaudArthur Rimbaud quote #1
  2. Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, And every conqueror creates a muse.

    Edmund WallerEdmund Waller quote #2
  3. Mother, though my song's measure is like your surf-beat's ancient rhythm I never learned it of you. Before there was any water there were tides of fire, both o…

    Robinson JeffersRobinson Jeffers quote #3