Herman Kruyder

"..[ Constant Permeke's] coloration, monumentallity and bewildering deformations of human physical and psychic properties.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"At the moment we are [Kruyder and his wife Jo Bouman] back in L. [Limburg] in Houthem St. Gerlach, already a fortnight. I collected already [sketching] a lot here. We left when it was not yet spring - just to see everything coming out against those beautiful hilly fields. That Country of Bemelen is so beautiful, I have made jottings [sketches]. Before that I made a very important drawing. A young Limburger [inhabitant].. ..especially from that subject I wanted to make a deeper psychological study now. I am not quite ready for that yet, but that is a nice goal of my trip, to look closely into that matter once more. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I think I am a tough mountaineer who, when he has the top in sight, is bounced off again [by mental break-downs], but some day I will succeed.. .I must do it, there is no other way for me. It is always such a pity that Jo [his wife] is cracked up so quickly, otherwise I didn't mind very much. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Now I am not a supporter of a contract. [Regnault will become the owner of all the new works of Kruyder by paying fixed amounts] But in these circumstances that I have now ended up in - temporarily I hope - it would be very welcome. Then at least I can work quietly in this misery just at the moment when I almost reached the top of the mountain. You will receive all my new works for that, and if necessary.. ..a choice from my older work. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"It is my intention, never to start with modeling directly [in the painting]. In my view this is the task of the sculptor. I am modeling 'the surfaces'. Not only concerning the volumes, but also concerning the flat hues, in which I try to achieve the most subtle distinctions. I don't care for external effects. It is always the high values of the surfaces which create the painting. I always get an unbelievable rich variety of facets. Not only the colors, which thereby preserve its power, but also the color-hues are clearly distinguished from each other by no other means than the brush-stroke. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Only now I see what I am capable of and I don't understand that I have been able to make this canvas in my small front room [1928, in Blaricum]. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I was done justice and I appreciated it. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"..[I] will now work on the painting 'The bitch in Heat', I have studies of the subject for a long time already. Actually it can better be called 'The fight therefore', because in the composition in the background three large dogs have a furious fight together. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I paint my own conflicts through the animals."

"..a man who paints a cat in poisonous green, just sitting around, twiddling one's thumbs on a cheese-yellow road in a blue meadow, or who doesn't put a pot of flowers on but nearby the table.. ..is a too easy target for mockery.. .. such a bright painter, making such curious things.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Herman made a very nice drawing before we left [to Limburg ], very quiet and white, a white neighing horse with the legs standing out, together with a small dark figure, a single white house and then everything is gray, something special .. ..We must be very careful and always have that fear with him for a repetition of that illness [heavy depression of Kruyder in 1926 and a mental breakdown in 1929, which continued to repeat almost annually]. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"It sounds rather strange that one's own teacher-ship would bring someone to great things.. ..but Kruyder explained to me that while teaching and walking up and down behind the drawing and painting easels of his pupils [c. 1926 - in his atelier in Heemstede, Kruyder was 35 years old), because of the busy activity of the others, he felt his own will encouraged as it were, to achieve as much as possible of those great things which were then already stirring in the inside, and to render them in personal imaginations. It was then that he really started painting definitely.. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"It must be emphasized that these paintings [ the Calf, the Cock, the Dog and the Horse have been understood and painted completely outside the area of human feeling and thought. Kruyder doesn't reproduce the animal from the outside - as humans sees them - but, as it were, from the inside, from the animal itself, and there is no doubt that he must have identified himself with these animals for a long time in order to be able to do so. He saw the being of the animal possessed by impulses and he recognized the cruel sensuality of it everywhere. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"During the eight years [1927 - 1935] that I could follow from very nearby the development of Kruyder's oeuvre, he made in that period, except for a few large and small drawings, watercolors, etc.. ..up to 30 paintings. Kruyder's nervous system didn't allow him to work constantly; that happened only in the morning and in the afternoon he rested."

"In this painting ['Pan' ] K. demonstrated a broader paint stroke and an enrichment of color. - 'Pan' was followed by a still life, a flower-piece; both works were included in my collection and placed in my studio in such a way that the flower-piece stood in front of 'Pan'. When Kruyder saw this particular method of placement, it inspired him to paint another still-life [another flower-piece], with the consequence that 'Pan' formed together with these two floral paintings - of which the artist called the one female and the other male - a kind of triptych."