Painters From The Netherlands

"..coloring is also drawing."

"Dear friend! I am still staying in Oosterbeek as you can see but I will now leave in 2 days. The last days I spent on two small paintings ordered by Mr. de Visser. I painted them in a happy atmosphere.. .I send them to you because they were still wet when I sent them away and I could hardly do that to Mr. de Visser. Please, do you want to give them a layer of egg-varnish and when you discover here or there a badly seen dash, or you see a chance to make a witty thing in the paintings, oh chap, I pray you do so, because if he doesn't like them, I'll get no bread and have nasty problems, because I need the money so badly.. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Nowadays I make ugly things, but I think they are nevertheless better than before, more made out-of-me myself, just simple cows with air and greenishness. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I really want to talk to you a lot, but what do I have to do? I still have things in progress here, two paintings and [I] must necessarily study sheep. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"How are you doing, make a good, simple [and] true thing, for example.. .I believe I have found a good place for it. Namely, I spoke Mr. about you and he expressed his wish that you should show him something good.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I've got a special liking for stables. I find them so very suitable for creating an artistique feeling, and then those stables from Oosterbeek! (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"..it is really beautiful here with that freezing weather. o you should see now the distance, and the fields with their black earth and flat shadows it would strike you, how lovely the sun is shining in the Betuwe.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"As far as my work concerned, I am busy with a few small paintings, one is ordered and the other I have to 'adventure'. More and more I feel that I am short of so many studies, if I had the money, I didn't make any painting next year, I would only study [sketches]; but well, you have to make the best of a bad job, it will be hard enough to enable myself a living. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Take care for this, don't start with the sentiment first, [because] that's where a piece of art is ending with - but the good start is drawing good and right. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

".I don't love less the gray waters of my Holland, their serious and somewhat sad color, which corresponds so well with the similar gray skies and vapors that are hanging there. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The past few days I've been reading part of a rather melancholy book, 'Brieven en dagboek' ('Letters and Diary') of Gerard Bilders. He died at the age [27] when I was more or less beginning. When I read it, I don't regret making a late start. He was certainly unhappy and was often misunderstood, but at the same time I find a great weakness in him, something unhealthy in his character. It's like the story of a plant that shoots up too early and can't withstand the frost, and as a result one fine night it's struck to the root and withers away. At first he does well — he's a master as in the hothouse — making rapid growth there — but in Amsterdam he stands almost alone, and despite his brilliance he can't cope there, and in the end he comes back to his father's house, completely discouraged, dissatisfied, apathetic — and there he does some more painting and finally dies of consumption or another disease in his 28th year."

"What I dislike in him is that 'while painting' he complains about terrible boredom and idleness.. .In short, I find him a sympathetic figure, but I would rather read the life of père Millet or T. Rousseau or Daubigny [all artists of the School of Barbizon ].. ..G. Bilders was a romantic in his outlook on life, and he never got over his lost illusions. For my part I regard it as in a sense a privilege that I began when romantic illusions were a thing of the past. Now I have some way to catch up, work hard, but particularly when you have lost illusions behind you, work is something you need and one of the few pleasures left. And from this comes a great peace and calm.. ..too often with G. Bilders it's [in his diary and letters] 'I was in a bad mood this week and made a mess of things..'."

"For me Ruisdael is the true man of poetry, the real poet. There is a world of sad, serious and beautiful thoughts in his paintings. They possess a soul and a voice that sounds deep, sad and dignified. They tell melancholic stories, speak of gloomy things and are witnesses of a sad spirit. I see him wander, turned in on himself, his heart opened to the beauties of nature, in accordance with his mood, on the banks of that dark gray stream that rustles and splashes along the reeds. And those skies!.. .In the skies one is completely free, untied, all of himself.. ..what a genius he is! He is my ideal and almost something perfect. When it storms and rains, and heavy, black clouds fly back and forth, the trees whiz and now and then a strange light breaks through the air, and falls down here and there on the landscape, and there is a heavy voice, a grand mood in nature; that is what he paints; that is what he [Ruysdael] is imaging."

"It is not my aim and object to paint a cow for the cow's sake or a tree for the tree's, but by means of the whole to create a beautiful and huge impression which nature sometimes creates, also with most simple means. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Many paintings are on their way, several half finished, others almost varnished and signed at the bottom. An important point is how a painting succeeds at last; an equally important point is when, how and to whom it is sold. Of these three points, the 'when', at least at this moment, is the most important for me. Then the 'how', in the sense of 'how much' [money]. To 'whom', is a question of wealth or wanton, as someone who had nothing to eat for a long time and then start to think, at whose costs am I going to fill my stomach.. .How mean! Painters are inferior people. Harsh!"

"Heavenly wonderfully beautiful that Wolfhezerland with its stream and pines.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I always have the most sympathy for that painting of mine, which the other people appreciate the least. It gives me the impression of an outcast and it takes on a romantic-interesting quality. I therefore always put this work first and want to prove to everyone that he is wrong if he does not appreciate this above all my other works. It is certainly rather foolish, and I do not know, it comes from an 'esprit de contradiction' or just from pity. The bad end has something attractive, one has sympathy for it."

"If you ever want to see the 'Nightwatch' [by Rembrandt ] at its best, visit it at two o'clock, half past three afternoon.. ..that time a warm light falls on the painting [then located in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam]; another world opens, a world of glow, light and inimitable power. I think Rembrandt is not only beautiful, but – were we still in the Age of the old Gods, I would worship him. You can lose yourself in that painting; it is a complete abyss, deep and sky-high.. ..then suddenly I think of my own paintings - poor cow, dairy, and sheep compositions, and I doubt, will I ever become something.."

"I am searching for a tone, which we call 'colored grey'. I mean that all colors, even the strongest, can be brought together in such a way as to give the impression of a warm, vital grey. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"To preserve the sense of the 'grey' even in the most powerful green is amazingly difficult and whoever discovers it will be a happy mortal. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I am busy working on a large painting with sheep; the last days I am working with real pleasure, the weather is.. ..not too hot and with nice skies. It's great here!!!! I shout with joy the whole day and more and more I desire to stay here until the end. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I have seen pictures [on the Salon of Brussel, 1860], of which I had never dreamed and in which I found all that my heart desires, all that I nearly always miss in the Dutch painters. Troyon, Courbet, Diaz, Dupré [all painters of the School of Barbizon, Robert Fleury have made a great impression on me. I am a good Frenchman, therefore; but, as Simon van den Berg says, it is just because I am a good Frenchman that I am a good Dutchman, since the great Frenchmen of today and the great Dutchmen of the past have much in common. Unity, restfulness, earnestness and, above all, an inexplicable intimacy with nature are what struck me most in these pictures. There were certainly also a few good Dutch pieces, but, generally speaking, when you place them next to the great Parisians, they lack that mellowness, that quality which, so to speak, resembles the deep tones of an organ. And yet this luxurious manner came originally from Holland, from our steaming, fat-coloured Holland! They were courageous pictures; there was a heart and a soul in them."

"At first I did not feel much inclined to agree [ Willem Maris had asked Mauve to paint together in open air, around the village Oosterbeek, c. 1863], but I did not like to refuse the little fellow flatly, so we went off together. My companion did not suffer from loquacity; and, coming to a field with cows in it, I sat down to go on with a drawing which I had begun that morning. The little chap [Willem Maris] strolled around a bit and then settled down to work himself. We sat there for hours under the pollards, until I grew curious to see what the little fellow was at. He sat sketching with a bit of chalk; but, oh! I stood astounded. I seized him by the hand and stammered in my turn, 'My boy, what an artist you are! You stagger me! It's magnificent!'"

"Friday 11. I have found there [at the [[w:Mauritshuis|museum 'Mauritshuis'] ]] already refuge - in front of Potter's big Bull. That is I started to copy the sheep with the lamb, which will not be a easy task, notwithstanding its great simplicity. The longer I look at that painting, the more beautiful things become visible to me, and when I wasn't convinced for sure that I was sitting in front of my painting easel in The Hague at the Mauritshuis, I would believe that the animals were alive and were - just as in the meadows in Oosterbeek - staring at me with their stupid faces, and asking: - what are you doing there? (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..so much is certain at least that seeing and studying the great Dutch masters arouse and encourage me to follow nature as a child, and to notice in it all those little ingenuous things and niceties as much as possible and reproduce them faithfully, which are so necessary to constitute a beautiful whole. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Now one thing is annoying and no one can change this. It is that the days are so horribly short because of the dark weather. Sketching and [?] is still possible to do, but to look closely and to reproduce subtle hues and shades would now be completely impossible. Especially in the Museum it is sometimes really dark. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I agree completely with your remark that in the struggle against nature lies already a part of art, and really pleasant is for me already the feeling of returning as a victor from small skirmishes, although in the great battle one always feels still defeated. As you advised me, I have made sketches of skies, indicating the effect in them, and making a note for the important colors; I also did better in making a small sky; at least people think so. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The moon appeared for some time [in the Savoy, Switzerland] and the rocks seemed to be much bigger than they were. The mountains were silvery illuminated and appeared gently against the mysterious blue of the sky - that blue color with moonlight, that has such an indefinable, deep tone; actually it is not a blue."

"All I can tell is that they [some small landscapes Bilders painted in Savoy, which were exhibited there] are more blatant than in my studio, and secondly that I have been honored with a pretty good review. ..the jury found evidence of a thoroughly study and of happy sunlight in my works. They thought that I had to cherish a lot of love for nature, to be able to show it so sensitive .. ..[I] can not deny that I am very pleased to find that my small paintings have been noticed favorably. And besides that, one will never forget his first review.."

"Yesterday I received a letter from my father [ Dutch landscape-painter J. W. Bilders.] He told me to come at once, to paint the goats in a rather large forest landscape-painting he just finished, which has to be sent away at once [to Saint Petersburg, Russia]. I earn back my travelling [from Leiden to Amsterdam, probably by travel coach] but will loose one day studying in open air. When my goats will succeed, and they are not too stubborn, I'll be back here [in Leiden] tomorrow at one o'clock in the afternoon."

"Jongkind divides his colors more and more, puts them in juxtaposition, and by about 1875 he is on equal footing with Sisley, and later with Seurat."

"Watercolor provides him with an autonomous art-form, and attracts him with a charm, of which he is fully aware, and because of this he prepares all the means necessary to capture on paper the beauty of values, whether they be questions of color or of balance."

"..in 1863 [Jongkind] begins the most beautiful series of watercolors that exists in the world."

"As he painted them [the sailing ships, in the harbor of Le Havre ] again that summer of 1865, Courbet and Whistler were his neighbours. At Deauville the robust Courbet reveled in swimming and was enjoying himself as usual. Whistler was with him. Courbet still spoke of him as his pupil, although Whistler had outgrown his influence."

"He has spent his childhood near a small port [Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam ]. The boats on the quayside, the proud three-masters leaving their home waters to sail the seas have always haunted his imagination and fed his imagination.. .His views of the river w:Scheldt, near Antwerp, painted during his most colorful period, are among his most memorable works."

"[Jongkind].. ..his painting was too new and far too artistic to be appreciated in 1862 at his prices. Moreover, no one was as bad at making himself valued, as he was. He was a straight-forward and simple kind of man, who could hardly speak bad French and was very shy. But he was very outgoing that day [in 1864, somewhere around [[w:Le Havre| Le Havre] ]. He asked to see my sketches, invited me to come and work with him, explained the whys and wherefores underlining his work and thereby, completed the training that I had already received from Boudin. He became from this moment my true master and it [is] to him, that I owe the definitive training of my eyes."

"One of the most precious gifts he [Jongkind] owed Schelfhout was his initiation to quick sketching after nature, rendering the full aspect of a landscape through a wash of summary colours over a nervous and solidly constructed drawing."

"He painted them 'after life', but one has to agree on the definition of this phrase insofar as he was concerned. A painting by Jongkind 'after life' is not a straightforward copy of the motif he had settled on. It is the reproduction of the same subject treated through watercolour. His first sketch is a watercolour. It is with his watercolour brush that he captured directly the impression of nature"

"Jongkind is beginning to make us digest a kind of painting of which the hard outer skin hides an excellent and most tasty fruit. I too have profited by coming in the door which he already had forced, and I have begun, albeit timidly, tp present my seascapes.. ..the longer one looks at his watercolors, the more one wonders how he does them! They are made from nothing and yet the fluidity and the density of the sky and clouds are reproduced with unbelievable precision.. ..Nothing alters him, success, honours, fortunes, attacks or disdain. He sizes men up for himself; he knows that the disdained Corot is the master of landscape, that the insulted Monet will soon be the glory of his age; he knows how to assess the weakness in the art of Isabey or Troyon."

"There at the moment in Honfleur.. ..Boudin and Jongkind are here; we get on marvelously.. .There's lots to be learned and nature begins to grow beautiful.."

"One must not forget that Boudin had received lessons from a master, Jongkind, whose oeuvre, especially in the watercolors, is the origin along with Corot of what has been called Impressionism."

"One must be particularly knowledgeable in order to render the sky and the land with this apparent disorder, here [in Jongkind's art, showed at the Salon of 1868] everything is true (French: 'vrai')."

"Monsieur Jongkind is a very fine Colorist. His slightly over-bright colors belong to him alone, his vividly sketched landscapes have great character, his paintings could be recognized among thousands. This is a fairly rare merit today. Monsieur Jongkind is opening up a very pretty part in art. It is not a royal highway, but where he walks by himself, without being elbowed out."

"You know that the only marine painter that we have, Jongkind, is dead to art. He is completely mad."

"Jongkind's craft hardly concerns him; and this results in the fact that, before his canvases, it does not concern you either. The sketch finished, the painting completed, you do not trouble yourself with the execution, it disappears before the power of the charm of the effect.."

"Eight days ago I left Paris and here I am at Honfleur, the place to which I return, as always, with new pleasure. It is a little seaport where there are ten or twenty ships of all nations; not counting the fishing vessels of the same nations. I tell you that this is very interesting for my studies."

"What I have suffered is unbelievable.. .I was given nothing [for his paintings in the Salon of 1855], not even a honorable mention."

"I miss my friends in Paris. Holland is fine to paint, but Paris is the only place to follow one's studies. One can find judges there who will encourage you, who wil tell one what is necessary and what is missing. My great hope is to return as soon as the weather and luck are on my side for he journey."

"With him [Jongkind] all lies in impression."

"I have another painting finished, a view near Rotterdam, and then another in process, and very far along. I made them from nature, that is to say I made watercolors [in open air] after which I made my [oil]-paintings."