I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.
A portrait has one advantage over its subject: it is unconscious; and you may therefore admire without disturbing it.
I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
The job of the portrait is to capture the soul and project it onto the canvas.
The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship with the model.
Painting a portrait is a huge attempt to comprehend and preserve the mystery.
Portraits are to daily faces as an evening west is to a fine day.
Portraiture is a window to the soul.
The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.
Life is an art, and we are all artists, constantly painting portraits of our lives.
A good portrait is incredibly hard to do, because it demands a synthesis of all the artist's means and powers.
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.
To me, every person, and every object, is a container of a universe of possibilities, and as such, I consider them portraits.
Portraits are the mirror of the soul.
The portrait is one of the most curious subjects offered to the artist.
Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody.