As light fades and the shadows deepen, all petty and exacting details vanish, everything trivial disappears, and I see things as they are in great strong masses: the buttons are lost, but the sitter remains; the sitter is lost, but the shadow remains; the shadow is lost, but the picture remains. And that, night cannot efface from the painter's imagination.
James WhistlerFor art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure.
James WhistlerNature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that nature is usually wrong.
James WhistlerTo say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.
James Whistler