“If the artist only reproduces superficial features as photography does, if he copies the lineaments of a face exactly, without reference to character, he deserves no admiration. The resemblance which he ought to obtain is that of the soul; that alone matters; it is that which the sculptor or painter should seek beneath the mask of features.”

Source: Art, 1912, Ch. VII. Of Yesterday and of to-day, p. 121

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If the artist only reproduces superficial features as photography does, if he copies the lineaments of a face exactly, …" by Auguste Rodin?

Auguste Rodin73

French sculptor 1840–1917

Related quotes

“Yet in my lineaments they trace
Some features of my father's face.”

George Gordon Byron Parisina

Parisina, Stanza 13, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of individualism that the world has known. Crime, which, under certain conditions, may seem to have created individualism, must take cognisance of other people and interfere with them. It belongs to the sphere of action. But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.

“An artist is a deception.... an artist is only an artist at certain times, by an effort of will.... the study of nature is a cliché; isn't Manet the living proof? For although he prided himself on slavishly copying nature, he was the most inadequate painter in the world, not making a single brushstroke without reference to the old masters; for instance, he refrained from drawing fingernails because Frans Hals did not draw them.”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

Quote of Degas, in his talk with the visiting Mallarmé, 1880's; as cited in Berthe Morisot, the first lady of Impressionism, by Margaret Sehnan; Sutton Publishing (ISBN 0 7509 2339 3), 1996, p. 234
1876 - 1895

“The unique purpose of geography is to seek comprehension of the variable character of areas in terms of all the interrelated features which together form that variable character.”

Richard Hartshorne (1899–1992) American Geographer

Source: Perspective on the nature of geography (1958), p. 20