Who really said it

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up

Not documented from Picasso — an apocryphal attribution Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 · Spanish painter, sculptor & co-founder of Cubism

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

No speech, interview, letter, or book by Picasso has ever been shown to contain this line. Its earliest known link to him is a source-less epigraph in Time magazine in October 1976 — more than three years after his death — and Wikiquote lists it as disputed. The idea that every child is an artist was a commonplace of art writing for decades before Picasso’s name was attached to it.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed — copy with the correction

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” Widely attributed to Pablo Picasso, but disputed — no primary source exists; the line first appears in Time magazine in 1976, three years after his death.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Pablo Picasso — Spanish painter, sculptor & co-founder of Cubism. Theme: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Popularly credited to: Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
Earliest attribution: Time magazine, “Modern Living: Ozmosis in Central Park,” 4 October 1976 — source-less epigraph
Primary source: None located in any work, interview, or letter by Picasso
Status: Disputed / apocryphal (posthumous attribution)

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

The wording circulates in several forms — “once he grows up,” “once we grow up,” “once he or she grows up” — a fingerprint of a saying passed by repetition rather than from a fixed printed source.

Quote Investigator: tracing the earliest attribution

How we verified this

The earliest known tie to Picasso is a bare epigraph in Time magazine, October 1976, printed with no source or context — over three years after Picasso died in April 1973.
Wikiquote places the line in its “Disputed” section, citing only that same 1976 Time appearance.
The thought long predates Picasso’s name: art critic Carleton Noyes wrote “The child is the first artist” in 1907, and near-identical phrasings recur from 1915 onward, per Quote Investigator.
Quote Investigator searched Picasso’s 1973 obituaries and found no such statement, and does not know where the Time writer got it.

Because no documented Picasso source for this exact line exists — it first appears posthumously in 1976 with no attribution — there is no identifiable work or first-publication date to which copyright could attach, so rights status cannot be asserted. This is an honest “uncertain,” not a claim of public domain.

Fact-check

Why this one is disputed

The line is one of the internet’s most-shared “Picasso” quotes, yet its trail runs cold at a posthumous magazine epigraph — and the underlying idea belonged to no single author.

No documented source in Picasso’s own words undocumented

Quote Investigator found the earliest Picasso attribution in Time magazine, October 1976 — printed with no source, three-plus years after Picasso’s 1973 death — and located nothing in his obituaries or writings.

Carleton Noyes, Percy Mackaye, and others predates Picasso

The claim that every child is an artist was a stock theme long before Picasso’s name attached to it: critic Carleton Noyes wrote “The child is the first artist” in 1907, and ‘Every child is an artist’ recurs from 1915 onward.

Both specialist trackers converge: Wikiquote calls it disputed and Quote Investigator finds no primary source — so treat it as apocryphal, not verified Picasso.

Context

A quote that sounds right

Picasso really did revere the unschooled boldness of children’s art, which is exactly why this sentence sticks to him so effortlessly — it flatters both the artist and the reader. That plausibility is the engine of misattribution: a line that feels like something Picasso would say needs no citation to travel.

But feeling right is not evidence. The paper trail begins in 1976, after Picasso could no longer confirm or deny it, and the thought itself had been in circulation for nearly seventy years under other names.

It sounds like Picasso — which is precisely why no one checked.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Creativity Growth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: Every Child Is an Artistquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation: earliest 1976 Time attribution, no primary source, century of precursors.

Pablo Picasso (Disputed section)en.wikiquote.org

Files the quote under Disputed, citing only the 1976 Time appearance.

The Gate of Appreciation (1907), Carleton Noyesarchive.org

Early precursor: the child as the first artist, predating the Picasso attribution by decades.

Pablo Picasso — biographyen.wikipedia.org

Life dates and career for the artist popularly credited with the line.

BrainyQuote entry (unsourced)brainyquote.com

Typical source-less repetition of the attribution, illustrating how it spreads.

The author

About Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

1881–1973 · Spanish painter, sculptor & co-founder of Cubism

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was a Spanish artist whose Cubist innovations and prolific output made him one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century art. He genuinely admired the directness of children’s drawing — famously remarking that it took him years to learn to paint like a child — which is part of why this feel-good line attaches so easily to his name. But admiration for children’s art is not the same as authorship of this particular sentence, and no source in his own words has ever been found.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Time (1976), via Quote Investigator

Earliest documented in “Modern Living: Ozmosis in Central Park,” Time, 4 October 1976 (source-less epigraph); investigated in Garson O’Toole, “Every Child Is an Artist…,” Quote Investigator, 7 March 2015.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/every-child-is-an-artist-the-problem-is-how-to-remain-an