Some say art copies or imitates nature

• Everything in art is but a copy of nature. Seneca the Younger
• All art is but imitation of nature. Seneca the Younger
• Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character. Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Art, as far as it is able, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master; thus your art must be, as it were, God’s grandchild. Dante Alighieri
• What is art? Nature concentrated. Honore de Balzac
• Great art picks up where nature ends. Marc Chagall
• Nature in no case cometh short of art, for the arts are copiers of natural forms. Marcus Aurelius
• Art is the child of Nature. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly. William Hazlitt
• Art is the child of Nature; yes, her darling child, in whom we trace the features of the mother’s face, her aspect and her attitude. Beck
• Let art, then, imitate nature, find what she desires, and follow as she directs. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• The function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. John Cage
• Art imitates nature not in its effects as such, but in its causes, in its ‘manner,’ in its process, which are nothing but a participation in and a derivation of actual objects, of the Art of God himself. Paul Claudel

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Others argue that great art should not copy nature…

• The idea is not to copy nature, but to give a feeling of nature. Piet Oudolf
• I love nature, but I try to change it a little bit, not copy it. Elsa Peretti
• One paints from nature not in order to copy, but to express feelings of grandeur. Georges Vantongerloo
• To paint from nature is to realize one’s sensations, not to copy what is before one. E. H. MacDonald
• I wished to copy nature. I could not. But I was satisfied when I discovered the sun, for instance, could not be reproduced, but only represented by something else. Paul Cezanne
• I’m not trying to copy Nature, I’m trying to find the principles she’s using. R. Buckminster Fuller
• Art does not lie in copying nature. Nature furnishes the material by means of which is to express a beauty still unexpressed in nature. The artist beholds in nature more than she herself is conscious of.
• Nature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence. Madame de Stael

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…but suggests it…

• Art does not copy nature – it suggests it. Ernst Gombrich

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— interprets it…

• Art is the poetic interpretation of nature. Charles Negre
• Copy nature and you infringe on the work of our Lord. Interpret nature and you are an artist. Jacques Lipchitz
• Art is man added to Nature. Francis Bacon
• I cannot copy nature in a servile way; I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colors, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition. Henri Matisse
• The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Aristotle
• Art is nature as seen through a temperament. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
• Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz: The mind and soul of man. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• Nature does not create works of art. It is we, and the faculty of interpretation peculiar to the human mind, that see art. Man Ray
• Through art we express our conception of what nature is not. Pablo Picasso
• Art is a product of nature in general, in the particular form of human nature. Anton Webern

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…re-creates it…

• Science, like art, is not a copy of nature but a re-creation of her. Jacob Bronowski
• Art compares to nature like wine to the grape. Franz Grillparzer

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…idealises it

• Art is the perfection of nature. Thomas Browne
• Art is a creation of a higher order than a copy of nature which is governed by chance…. By the elimination of all muddy colors, by the exclusive use of optical mixture of pure colors, by a methodical divisionism and a strict observation of the scientific theory of colors, the neo-impressionists insures a maximum of luminosity, of color intensity, and of harmony- a result that has never yet been obtained. Paul Signac
• Great artists do not copy what they see, but what they desire. Theophile Gautier
• What is commonly called ugliness in nature can in art become full of beauty. Auguste Rodin
• What is art? It is not just nature, it is nurtured nature. Rudolf Nureyev
• The true test of all the arts is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind. Joshua Reynolds

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Art is not a copy but an abstraction

• Do not copy nature. Art is an abstraction. Rather, bring your art forth by dreaming in front of her and think more of creation. Paul Gauguin
• A bit of advice, don’t copy nature too closely. Art is an abstraction; as you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it, and concentrate on what you will create as a result. Paul Gauguin

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Art cannot improve on nature

• Why should I copy this owl, this sea urchin? Why should I try to imitate nature? I might just as well try to trace a perfect circle. Pablo Picasso
• Art is art, nature is nature, you cannot improve upon it…. Pictures should be inspired by nature, but made in the soul of the artist. It is the soul of the individual that counts. Emily Carr

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On a lighter note

• Art is not a copy of the real world; one of the damn things is enough. Virginia Woolf
• A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned things is ample. Rebecca West
• Nature constantly imitates art. Oscar Wilde