J. M. W. Turner Quotes

“If I could find anything blacker than black, I'd use it.”

— J. M. W. Turner

It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create.

— J. M. W. Turner

“I don't paint so that people will understand me, I paint to show what a particular scene looks like.”

— J. M. W. Turner

“It is necessary to mark the greater from the lesser truth: namely the larger and more liberal idea of nature from the comparatively narrow and confined; namely that which addresses itself to the imagination from that which is solely addressed to the eye.”

— J. M. W. Turner

I know of no genius but the genius of hard work.

— J. M. W. Turner

I hate married men. They never make any sacrifices to the arts, but are always thinking of their duties to their wives and families or some rubbish of that sort.

— J. M. W. Turner

“My job is to paint what I see, not what I know.”

— J. M. W. Turner

“Light is therefore color.”

— J. M. W. Turner

“To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art.”

— J. M. W. Turner

Painting can never show her nose in company with architecture but to have it snubbed.

— J. M. W. Turner

“Indistinctness is my forte.”

— J. M. W. Turner

“Painting is a strange business.”

— J. M. W. Turner