Willem Roelofs

"..every day I can benefit from Mr. B [his teacher, Van de Sande Bakhuyzen ] is another profit.. ..day by day my ambition is growing. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..it is a masterpiece [painting of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek: 'View on the Woods' 1839, with sizes 176 x 160 cm], a well-executed brave undertaking to imagine something like that on a large scale with such an elaborateness. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I also sold some drawings [he means his watercolors] - the Dutch pieces [he painted in The Netherlands] sell rather well [in Brussels, where he lived then]. People seem to prefer colored drawings here. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I repainted the only unsold picture that was [exhibited] in Rotterdam last year. It seems to me that it looks quite pleasing and good now.. .I want you to ask him [the client] seven hundred guilders.. ..for six hundred as lowest price I would be willing to sell it and if you think - knowing him - it would be better to ask that price at once, so do it. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dear Sir Verloren. Today I send you a drawing for your art-reviews. I would liked to have done more for you, but I have many demands for drawings from all sides and I am still very busy with paintings after my studies I made during the last trip. I hope that the drawing will be acceptable. The price is 150 guilders. I am not sure you need a title, call it just simply, 'Bij een Drentsch dorp' (At a village in Drenthe). (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I was sorry for Gabriel that all the efforts you have employed so diligently were in vain to help him to sell one of his paintings in [the exposition in Amsterdam, in] 'Arti'. Is there not any chance to order from him a small presentable painting (backed up by me, if it will help) for one or the other? He really deserves it and hundred guilders can mean so much at some moments. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I have focused on your desire to bring in more effect [in the watercolor].. ..with more light in the drawing, [what] was not the least difficult.. ..[this operation] has passed tricky moments; but I believe I have remained master of the area and have made a drawing [watercolor] of aspect [?] and color. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"There is still some study [to do] here for the Dutch landscape, and I believe the best I can do is to stay some time longer. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I can not get used to the idea of staying here [in Belgium] always. One stays always a 'stranger' here and I miss the support from each other one has in his own country. I sometimes wonder what will be more my advantage, to be here [Belgium] or with us in The Hague.. .It always seemed to me that it doesn't look very brilliant with us [in The Hague] and I believe to be here [in Brussels] more in the heart of the movements in art, but sometimes I dislike Belgium. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Paint studies of parts, for instance a piece of land, a group of trees or things like that, but always in a way that people can understand these things in relation with the whole landscape, by adding behind that group of trees the air in a right tone color and thereby in connection with the trees.. .Furthermore studies of a whole, preferably very simple subjects - A meadow with horizon and a piece of air to examine further the general tone color, the harmony of the whole.. ..and study nature even more by thinking about it than working after it. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"[one watercolor] is in spite of all its difficulties, and perhaps because she has given so much trouble, less fresh and has become a little heavy - I myself have considered for a long time whether she was good enough to send it [for a exhibition in Utrecht] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"That [watercolor] with the Cows has been partially washed out [reducing colors] and that ugly hedge of willow trees has been taken out, and is already doing better, but the paper is not a good quality. I don't know I'll finish it or make a new one. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The drawings [his watercolors] usually succeed in one day or at most two days or they develop difficult and usually don't finish well, then.. ..[I hope] the end will be as good as the beginning. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Then make those studies outside. With the utmost simplicity you try to get rid of all the so-called manners, and try in one word to follow nature with feeling, but without thinking about the works of others. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I hope to compensate this year [in 1866 Roelofs was seriously ill] the damage of so little studies [watercolors and drawings] once and for all because most of the old ones I already used [for his oil-paintings]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Bosboom seemed to have enjoyed my drawing [= watercolor] - He gave me a small visual comment - which I accepted with thanks and will follow. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"My sketch [in watercolor, made in 1861] represents the Hunebed in Tinaarlo in Drenthe, which I drew a few years ago; I have still the intention to paint it [oil-painting after, after his watercolor].. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"[intention to make a voyage of discovery through The Netherlands] ... with the aim to apply it as a painter, as well as in my quality of entomologist [specialism, snout beetle] .. .. what parts, provinces or regions of our country [ are] 'least' visited from an entomological point of view ..? (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I will soon have finished another drawing [= watercolor], in the spirit as Den Tessaro [art-seller in Antwerp] wished another one, that is 'airy' and 'thin', with 'lots of space', etc.-. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Lately I have been asking for landscape [paintings] with animals, so I have devoted a lot of time this year sketching cows. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..and then it remains you to re-create your study, the fragment, into a painting. For remember; these are two [different] things: Nature is the material from which we must take. But don't be fooled by the modern theories, that imitating, copying nature would be 'everything'. The goal, the Art's aim is .... to move.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The goal, the pursuit of art is to move, like music does; to create sensations in our mind.."

"[a landscape painter cannot do with] being stupid-natural.. ..all that art would be [made] in vain if the feeling stayed away. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..at least I have the conviction of being honest and I do despise most of all those.. ..alienating works of art [eg. of Seurat ], the disease of our time. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I wonder [interviewer: I hear him saying quite soon] or that line [in the picture he is just working on] doesn't repeat itself. It's more or less the same, isn't it? on both sides, don't you think so? [(interviewer) 'Maybe it is!' - I dare to say; there is no escape; I have to give advice] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I have experienced this country of the great mountains [Switzerland] superb! .. ..[but] I positively believe that nature, most appropriate to be reproduced in painting, is the modest landscape which seems just ordinarily and very insignificant. (translation from original French: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I certainly believe that the simple landscape which seems less impressive is the nature that is most proper to paint. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..when making a painting after a study, it costs me a lot of effort to follow this study very well. One is very much inclined to make something different, so-called better, and that's why people usually get confused. A good outdoor-study has a breath of nature in it which must not be neglected or destroyed. You have to get everything out of that study and not just a third or half. If you can really improve one or the other: a la bonheur, but otherwise it is advisable to follow the study obediently as a guide. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"We separate color and drawing because we have to. But nature doesn't. She doesn't give something a shape, for coloring it only afterwards. Form and color are inherent properties of the object that we have got as thing to paint. If we neglect one of both, we only give half. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Ships, houses, mills... in one word everything that is made by people must stand upright and be painted with care. This is actually a good presentation compared to other, less symmetrical things, like the trees, skies, etc. It doesn't create the painting, but it certainly strengthen the illusion. It's just like somebody who is neatly dressed, but whose tie is coming off. The windows of a house must be straight, a mill in a pure construction, the blades well-positioned in perspective. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..I wish the Great Master [Nature] will always continue to provide you with benefit. In the meantime, I am assured that you will spent every moment to collect your studies. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Roelofs puts emotion in his paintings, which can sometimes cause a melancholy in those misty, windy landscapes of the north. 'De oevers van het Gein' ['The banks of the river Gein'] are interrupted halfway [in the painting] and the melancholy is floating through the gray mist which rises from the fields, ploughed with blonde stripes. In this canvas the virile and the refined talent of Roelofs are both completely expressed: the horizon is bathing in the air, the depths are illuminated somewhat transparent, the water clear and shiny, is painted beautifully and the reeds along the banks, together with the bright light are contrasting with that hazy green of the trees. In everything you can feel the nearness of the sea and one can give way to dreamy reflections. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Roelofs' advice is to paint rather thick, that is to say firmly in the paint and use this preferably without any oil or turpentine.. .I hope you will understand it well, not thick in color, because he [Roelofs] only achieves that haze and the strength of colors by painting it over repeatedly. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..that I went to see Mr Roelofs the day after I received your letter, and he told me that his opinion was that from now on I should concentrate on drawing from nature, i.e. whether plaster or model, but not without guidance from someone who understands it well. And he, and others too, seriously advised me definitely to go and work at a drawing academy, at least for a while, here or in Antwerp or anywhere I could. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Hanging beside me is a landscape study by Roelofs, a pen sketch, but I can't tell you how expressive that simple outline is. Everything is in there. english translation of original letter"

"Roelofs used an instrument, which may be called curious for a landscape artist: a compass. With this he first measured very accurately where the horizon had to find its location [in the painting]. Then a line was drawn to determine its place. The air was therefore not started at the top.. .From the horizon the painting was alternately painted above and below the horizon, to maintain proportionality, balance and harmony; air and landscape were then developed from that core. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"What you and I will pass indifferent as insignificant or ugly, he stands still in front of it in quite delight, and while you ask yourself what one can see there, his poet-soul has felt the poetry of this deserted place and he will show it you [in his painting] how it struck him. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"He loved Nature most in dreadful weather. He didn't give up the enjoyment and the teachings of working outside, even in very bad northwester wind and fierce rain showers. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"In the evening the whole family was always sitting in the studio around the light .. ..W. R. [his father] was reading in his armchair, placed sideways against the table and the light placed on his side. The tea set with a large teapot was put on a tea-light on the painting cabinet. Eating we did early, at 5 o'clock. If he went out in the evening, he frequently visited the Circle Artistique [in Brussels] to read the newspapers. Or to a coffee house, to view illustration-magazines. He didn't play games, except sometimes chess or checkers. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"