People From The Hague

".. We also noticed that in this specialty, [the section landscape-painting], which must be based so entirely on a faithful study of nature, the way which our old [Dutch Golden Age] masters followed with so much fame - some artists start to leave that golden way more and more, to the disadvantage of their works and of art in general. This was mainly to be seen in the paintings of a 'young and very promising artist [Wijnand Nuijen], who starts to tilt increasingly to the Romantic way of taste, and, being dragged along by the fashion spirit of recent time, seems to prefer an easy effect without truth and naturalness above a powerful and vivid expression of objects. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The death of the unforgettable Nuyen has moved me deeply, Jan. Now the hope for young painting art [in The Netherlands] lies on You. Surely you are, after Nuyen, the only one who can fulfill this task. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Nuijen, a pupil of Schelfhout.. ..was in turn reviving his master. Schelfhout had fallen back into a certain deadly, pale, green color by 1830, and Nuyen, who the sun of rising Romanticism from France had shone in his eyes, was one of the first in our country [The Netherlands] to take a look there.. .In 1833 this became a reason for Schelfhout to make a trip to Paris.. ..with this consequence that Schelfhout's talent of the moment got a new elan.. .Not only that he spread his wings more freely, but also his subjects were transferred to another area. [the wide Dutch landscape and many winter-views]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Around 1836 I left the studio of my master and obtained my own studio in the parental home.. .The [[w:Romanticism|romantic [Dutch] movement]] under the leadership of the highly-gifted [Wijnand] Nuijen [c. 1830] also attracted me to follow. And in spite of the fact that in this way people lost their color and embellishment and often degenerating into chic, later on, a more sensible search arose for enlivening of coloration, heightening effect and strengthening the relief. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Some of his [Nuijen's] works reveal a flight of imagination that aspires above the patriotic [Dutch] uniformity towards a more impressive style."

"Light and air, that's art! I can never give enough light in my paintings, especially in the skies. The air in a painting, that is really a thing! It is the main thing! Air and light are the great magicians. It is the sky which prescribes the painting. Painters never look enough at the sky. We must get it from above. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I remember I stood stunned as a boy, in front of the paintings of the old [Dutch] masters in our museums, how they let speak Nature to you. If I have learned to see nature by someone, it was by our old masters. But most by Nature itself. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Better send in one good picture than a lot of poor ones, but then that good one must be so good that it almost walks out of the frame and becomes a portion of nature itself."

"You see I am like a surgeon in a hospital; all these [sketches / watercolors] lying around me are my patients, and as I walk about among them I notice those most in need of doctoring. I pick out some sickly looking specimen and say to myself, 'Only wait a moment, and I will find some remedy for you'; some need much medicine, and some even require a severe operation to bring them round. Look at that one in the corner. I believe it is suffering from jaundice, but doubtless I shall find a cure for it."

"I was a healthy, strong, cheerful boy, and like to take great walks in and around The Hague.. .I sometimes got a blow from Nature. And if I got such a blow later, I could draw and paint what I saw. I recorded it in a few scribbles."

"When it is storming and raining, thundering and lightning I am in my element; nature must be seen in action. Then outside, I put on my jacket, put my feet in clogs, put on a hat and start on a march. When the showers settle down, with charcoal or black chalk [I] make a scribble, to keep a firm grip on what one sees. When working out, hue and color come smoothly back into the memory."

"My good Lord and friend Sala, - [I] enjoyed the blissful pleasure enjoyed by your friendship.. .When I reached the city [The Hague] again yesterday, I have taken the fishes out of the basket more than 12 times, to show them.. .That day, friend Sala, belongs among the most pleasant of my life, all moments have kept me alive until now, always sitting [fishing] in the boat, swaying with the bobbers in the field of view.."

"Weissenbruch to Anton Mauve: He [ Vincent van Gogh ] is drawing damn well, I could paint after his studies."

"Nothing special is happening here in the paintersworld [of the Netherlands]; everything stays firmly the same. (translation, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"In the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam an honorary exhibition of the art-works of the woman-painter Jacoba van Heemskerck.. .The collection brought together gives a clear overview of 'working' and 'wanting' for this very special talent. Clearly shown is the road that had to lead her from naturalism to her recent monumental abstract 'compositions' in which she portrayed 'Life': to the great last meeting with 'Architecture'! That combination promised a triumph! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suddenly and unexpectedly death ended up the life of this great person. Before finishing her task, this wonderful young woman died - J.B. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"The [glass window]-designs lay ready for months [1922-23] but as the building did not proceed as quickly as it was expected, the glass-cutting was put off again and again. During the last spring it often made her anxious, that the work did not advance, as if she had the feeling that she would never see it finished. And so it was. When at last she had to lie down, never to rise again, the designs lay there, with all the indications how they had to be worked out. Thanks to these minute preparations it has been possible to finish them as a last witness of her genius."

"From the power of the senses, Jacoba von Heemskerck has created the images which give meaning to the world. Which interpret the world, Water and Mountain and Tree are her visual impressions, which became the painterly tools to create her pictures. Movement of the elements becomes element of movement. Form of Nature becomes art-form, and impression expression. Parts of the world get transformed into parts of Art. And parts of Art are combined together into one image.. .Jacoba van Heemskerck lived in and with Art. With all her thinking, senses and efforts.. ..her life continues, formed in Art. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"for Jacoba van Heemskerck"

"A revelation, of eternal truth, to mankind. In the middle [of Jacoba's 'Painting No. 23' ] the motif of a floating ship, with the radiant white sail, like a saint spreading his both arms to heaven to absorb all the wisdom of the divine. Next to it, and following the first, the other two [ships], also with immaculate-white sails, but the interior of them not yet unfolded that strong [as the first ship]. In this way they continue, quietly and surely, over the rippling water-surface, towards suffering humanity.. .In the foreground, on both sides, two heavy, powerful black figures of trees, their branches twisted and wringing to each other and thus creating the gate of misery and suffering, through which every person must go who wants to bring something to mankind, what can help. In large angular blocks the earth is shown below, from which the trees grow up, the earth and its fertility. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Jacoba van Heemskerck paints a tree. She doesn't want its appearance, not the object, not the expression which can already be made in some dashes of color to astonish the observer. It is indeed about a tree, but she wants the miracle: standing, spreading itself, bearing its leaves, reaching into space, moving, being a part of the world. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"..Also Lady van Heemskerck van Beest has found in Cubism the direction in which she can now express herself preferably. The shape [of cubism] is already so familiar to her that she uses it without much difficulty and with her diligence and good will she moreover knows how to handle the right color soon. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Here [in the Netherlands] there is absolutely nothing, nowhere and permanently committees to deliver the visual artists some money, since all are hungry. It is such a difficult time for Holland. I had flu, I was very sick and I am still too weak to work. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"For you it must be a great satisfaction that you have done so much for modern art. If Der Sturm had not worked like this for ten years then Germany would not have been at the forefront of the movement. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"..I am so often showing my work in Germany that I belong to the German moderns.. .I openly want to confess you that I don't value the new painting in my home country very much. That is why I don't have a lot of acquaintances among the painters. Everything here is so little progressive. People's life is to easy here. It is very difficult to keep wide-awake since all are sleeping here. I feel much more at home in Germany. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I don't understand how many painters can be so short-sighted to value art from earlier periods as completely worthless. Every art is an expression of an era and only for that reason already it is interesting. A Rembrandt has gone other ways, but he has certainly also pursued the highest goals. That one can assert: it is not necessary for a painter to have an impression when he is painting an Image, is nonsense. Certainly an artist, if he is really an artist, always has an inner urge to create an Image and thus sees an impression for himself that he may not always be able to explain, because deeper feelings are very difficult to grasp in words, but he has an impression - otherwise he only makes paintings as pure brain work. And intellectual art I can't bear. You can not make abstract art as something on its own. One feel various forms in their inner coherence. For example: when reading a fairy tale I can get the idea to paint a forest in completely abstract forms with motifs of trees. Every abstract form has an inner meaning for me. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"On the whole [the alignment of a series of stained glass windows with the interior of a villa in The Hague] I have thought about all the time.. .I want to focus more on the architecture of the interior in general and that should we do together [with architect Buys].. .Now I was already thinking, the enormous color effect that the window will generate - and that will certainly become powerful - must be accompanied with strong colors - the hall -, otherwise the window itself will be too much isolated. For instance the staircase, could it be painted in strong colors and not [in] oak.. ..deep ultramarine blue or green, with a beautiful colorful carpet.. ..I feel I must make designs for carpets, to create in that way a beautiful unity with the stained glass as a whole. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Again I only gave numbers [of her art-works, she sent for the next Sturm-exhibition]. I stick to my idea of not giving titles. ..Titles are really disgusting romantic, and now in a while people will have hundreds of Spring's, Summers, Trees [paintings], to Liebknecht, Eberts, etc.. Above everything color and line have their own specific language, which doesn't want to be captured in a title. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I got the idea to paint people, in the way I see them. From one face I take to my own idea some very characteristic features of it and then I make of the whole a picture in colors and lines, in the way how I meet that person. The whole thing becomes not at all a portrait in the usual sense.. .I have tried to make types, but will built in more and more personal qualities and all that kind of things.. .Everything will be figured out fully abstract of course, it is just a personal feeling and no system at all. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Every day I am thinking about the Art school [which Walden wants to start in Germany, since 1915-16].. .If our pursuit is really to make great progress in future, the Art school must produce individualities who can with our assist really continue from their inside and start creating on their own, without always studying the pictures of other artists. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"This evening the Anthroposophical Society invited me to give a lecture about modern art, on 13 March. They start to wake up here [in the Netherlands].. .Please, tell me something, what I should emphasize, what you find most important. I shall also read something from 'The Spiritual in Art' by Kandinsky.. .But we still have other views on the whole, isn't it. I don't always agree with Kandinsky, and often more with your views. So please write a little much.. .You know, for me it is always easier to paint my principles. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"All men forget that colors have to radiate to give the big [spiritual] expression. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"Once again I talked with some painters, but the modern artists [in The Netherlands ] write more than they paint. If you write about art in such a way and you want to paint always with a fixed plan, then you will lose completely the deep, glorious and spontaneous art. You always have to create the new from the very deep, inside. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"As an artist you can not stand for long in The Netherlands. You must see a lot and talk a lot about everything.. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I was in Rotterdam, but the exhibition there was horrible. Le Fauconnier has nothing to tell anymore. He has a dirty color now and has become a real academic. Mondrian is completely frozen, no poetry at all anymore. It's terrible that these people can not reach further with great ideals. To my taste paints far too much naturalistic. A big difference, these three, compared to [[w:Franz Marc|[Franz] Marc]], Kandinsky, Filla etc.. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"It is a terrible, but also tremendous time. Personally I find it moreover so important for my art to live now.. .These times force you to think over a lot and work very hard, in Nature now a strong creative force is working. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"I work a lot and I think a lot. I really want to try to paint on glass. .Please will you ask him [mr. architect Taut ] if there are any transparent colors, which one can use to paint on the glass directly.. .I want to dispose of a new technique in which the artist can paint on the glass directly instead of canvas. When one wants to reach colors spiritually-bright, then a time will come that oil-paint and canvas are no longer suitable.. .So, if you have time, please ask Mr. Taut if he understands my view and maybe he knows the ways how I can follow my direction. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"That's the way it goes, you know, I'm always dissatisfied and always I want to go on. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"The country [ Brittany ] is very beautiful and painterly one see stimulating color tones; but the more abstract one works, the more one transforms the sketch into combinations. (translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)"

"The same year [1835] I made my debut at the Exposition in Rotterdam with [his painting] "the St. Janskerk in ’s Hertogenbosch, the interior", which immediately found a merchant.. .The approval by this, [and] the renewed appreciation I got in Felix 38, now concerning a 'church with incident sunlight', together with my personal characteristic tendency to reproduce the impressions which church buildings gave me, led me gradually to choose and prefer this genre [church-interiors], [and to visit] Belgium in '37 and repeatedly to return there, attracted by the abundance of study [many churches], that this country offered me.."

"He [Bosbooom] may have been influenced by Romanticism and in particular by [[w:Wijnand Nuijen|[Wijnand] Nuyen]], later he may have sought more powerful effects in his admiration for Rembrandt, after 1870 he may have been influenced by the modern breath of a burgeoning [[w:Impressionism|Impressionism - and this was unquestionably the case, - it does not detract from the fact that from the very beginning he remained himself, from the very beginning he was recognized for the gifts of his heart and his hand in a genre which at that time was quite widely practiced."

"An architect, who was a great lover of art, once said to the writer [= E.B. Greenshields himself!] 'From that point of view, Bosboom is all wrong. He does not draw correctly from the architect's standpoint, but he does something far more difficult and much finer. He gives us the effect of airy atmospheric spacious interiors. He reaches the end he sought splendidly, and produces wonderfully beautiful and poetical pictures, but not architectural drawings."

"The death of the unforgettable Nuyen has moved me deeply, Jan. Now the hope for young painting art [in The Netherlands] lies on You. Surely you are, after Nuyen, the only one who can fulfill this task."

"The [[w:Romanticism|romantic [Dutch] movement]] under the leadership of the geniuses Nuyen [c. 1830] also attracted me to follow. And in spite of the fact that in this way people lost their color and embellishment and often degenerating into chic, later on, a more sensible search arose for enlivening of coloration, heightening effect and strengthening the relief."

"To show this later progress in my own work I refer to my [paintings] 'Organ-playing monk', in 1850, my 'Lord's Supper in the Geestes-kerk (church) in Utrecht' in 1852, and my 'Bakenesse-kerk (church) in Haarlem', painted a dozen years later. All three can be found in the museum Fodor and can thus be compared to each other. The preference will undoubtedly be given to the latter, which for its strength and unity is counted among the masterpieces of this [Fodor] collection."

"..how with the [[w:Romanticism|[Dutch] Romantic movement]] after 1830 also the love awakened for everything that recalled former times to the mind - including the period of the middle-ages -, and how the sigh grew from it to collect all kind of objects that reassured the taste of those times. Here too, the celebrated [Dutch romantic painter] Nuyen stood in front."

"..that my drawings which offer - also by variety of genre - a greater variety [compared to his paintings], especially after 1863, when my late friend jr. CCA Ridder van Rappard urged me to reserve especially for him all the new works I would make and such including the freedom not to limit myself exclusively to my main genre [churches]. In the environment around his estate in the Sticht where he stayed, it became therefore the treshing-floors of the farms and the house-interiors which immediately attracted and inspired me to achieve a new personal interpretation of these subjects."

"In [18]35, I made a study trip about Utrecht and Nijmegen to Dusseldorf, Cologne and [w:Koblenz|Coblentz]], together with Samuel Verveer, who had already left the studio of van Hove. My painting 'View of the Moselle Bridge in Coblentz' – exhibited in the same year here - was bought by Schelfhout and, in addition to the satisfaction it gave me, I was allowed to find a counselor in him from then on; he became and remained my friend since then."

"As a schoolboy drawing-lessons became my favorite, and that pleasure was not ignited a little when, by the time of my twelfth year, the cityscape-painter B. J. van Hove became our neighbor. Since then I began to long for the moment that I would be allowed to change the school bench for a place in his studio. That desire was already satisfied in the autumn of [18]31."

"In the [art-magazine] 'Kunst-Kronijk' my work 'Monastic corridor' came under your eyes; it is after a drawing that I started at Kleve after Nature and of which the painting is now almost finished. I believe, you know Kleve. The smallest of the Catholic Churches is a kind of monastery church; it has a nice sacristy, and the passage along the building gave me the motive of which you saw the lithography. On the same spot I designed a sketch in the 'Paarden-posterij' [Horse post-location] (where the cars are stored at Emmerich). I later made it a drawing - one of my best, and also the construction of it is now already in oil, to be completed soon. As motive, aspect, effect, etc. it pleases everyone - it is a real stable with lots of horses in it, and yet I do not have to make an enormous effort to paint the horses. As they are in the stable, they take the mysterious part [of the image]. Who knows, the K[unst]-K[ronyk] will produce a reproduction of it."

"..truly, if I sometimes of my work under the eyes, I love a genre [churches!], which in the fullest sense of saying may be called 'mine'. [the word 'mine' double underlined]"