I don't dig beneath the surface for things that don't appear before my own eyes.

- John Singer Sargent

A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.

- John Singer Sargent

An artist painting a picture should have at his side a man with a club to hit him over the head when the picture is finished.

- John Singer Sargent

I do not judge, I only chronicle.

- John Singer Sargent

Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire.

- John Singer Sargent

If you begin with the middle-tone and work up from it toward the darks so that you deal last with your highest lights and darkest darks, you avoid fa…

- John Singer Sargent

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

- John Singer Sargent

You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.

- John Singer Sargent

I hate to paint portraits! I hope never to paint another portrait in my life. Portraiture may be all right for a man in his youth, but after forty I …

- John Singer Sargent