Hendrik Willem Mesdag

"Roelofs' [his teacher then] 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)"

"..Tadema wrote me that you both agreed that I must not exhibit these two paintings [which Mesdag painted in 1868-69]; [because] they were not yet complete enough for my reputation in Brussels. That's why I will not exhibit this year in Brussels, for I tell you sincerely that I cannot do better at the moment.. .I had very little pleasure from my exhibited paintings in The Hague; they were hanged badly, so people couldn't almost see them, but what can you do? Suffer and keep your mouth. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I thank you for being so sincere in telling me honestly your opinion on the paintings sent to Paris ['Une journée d'hiver à Scheveningue' (a winter-view) and 'Les Brisants de la Mer du Nord' (a sea-scape)]. I am pleased that you really like the large sea piece. As far as the other painting is concerned [winter-view].. ..in a frame and well placed in my studio, most artists [in The Hague] preferred the Winter day. However, that doesn't say enough yet and I am therefore pleased that you gave so honestly your [critical] opinion. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I have studied the subject and painted it directly to nature [his painting 'Scheveningen strandgezicht / Scheveningen, beach view'] and I have tried to reproduce that motif simply and unaffectedly, with no desire to make a painting with a lot of 'éclat' [glow]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I have rented a room in Scheveningen to make studies from nature. It is a room with view on the sea; I hope to make there beautiful things, and to keep moving forward. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"It was fatal news: the sudden death of our boy, a three-day illness ended his life. What is our house empty.. .,which for eight years [age of their son] was the illusion of our lives. Fortunately for us that we love art and let us hope that we [Mesdag and Sientje, his wife] continue to dedicate our lives to our painting, which has given me already so much pleasure.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..the art-reviews on my work in the French and English magazines.. ..[are] enough to claim that I already have reached a prominent position among today's marine painters. I would also like to take this fact into consideration when determining my prices. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"At the coast you can see the most beautiful sea. I also made my panorama there. I regard it as my most important work; because it gives such a huge impression of nature. But I don't like to start it all again; to paint sixteen hundred meters of canvas there.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dear Brother-in-Law - Sister. We are ailing again rather well through the winter, always busy and working. It is a pity that the opportunity for [making] new studies has not yet come, it is always a nice variation. Now it is every time again sea and pinks, etc. [subjects in his paintings]. - For Paris I am very busy - To Vienna a painting will be send.. .A second large painting has gone to Brussels - A [xxxx?] will offer drawings of us [drawings of him and his wife] and , at this moment they are crossing the Great Water, with destination to New York where they will be exhibited - we hope with success - Two beautiful paintings has enriched our collection again, one of Dupre and one of Rousseau. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dear Lords, I hereby have the Honor to announce You that the painting 'Het Binnen komen der Haringschuiten in Scheveningen' has been sent today to your address, for your upcoming Exhibition [in Arti, Amsterdam]. The price is f 2500-. I also declare to stay out of competition for the medal. Yours sincerely HW Mesdag. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..at home [in Brussels, 1869] I was messing around all winter long with a painting; it was a coast, but painted so primitive. Then I said: you must see the sea in front of you, every day, you have to live with it, otherwise it doesn't work. Then we went to The Hague. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"That splendid, head, in which everything is said that can be said; color, line, tone, expression; the slightly advanced head, with the soft, almost human eyes, I never enter my studio in the morning without my eye falling upon this creature and wishing it 'Good Morning'."

"And you know, if my wife haven't said some forty years ago: do it, let's go to Brussels to study painting, [with a. o. Willem Roelofs ], then I probably would never have left my business [in banking]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"In Groningen [where Mesdag stayed till 1866] I also lived at the harbour, and I always used to chat with those skippers. Afterwards Willem Roelofs and Tadema taught me a lot, in the years from '66 to '69 in Brussels. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"What I've made there - about some years ago, you will never see that again! It's all over; with Scheveningen it's finished. And when I didn't still know everything about the past from those sketches, indeed it [his painting] was definitely over. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dear Niece Angel, - Thank you for your words of condolence in the death of [[w:Sina Mesdag-van Houten|my loved one - Wife]. At the funeral it turned out again how much she is honored and loved by all. She was the sun in my life, and although painfully affected, I remember in silent melancholy the many years that I might kept her. Fortunately, the end has been calm and quiet and because of this she has been spared for even greater pains by her illness (calcification of the arteries). I hope to find in my work consolation and distraction for the irreparable loss.- With friendly greetings Your affectionate Nephew HW Mesdag (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Those two [ Alma Tadema and Roelofs, teaching both Mesdag in Brussels, 1867-69] instructed in exactly the opposite way, you know. For example, Roelofs used to say: you must put more color in that drawing [often meant: watercolor]. And you didn't always saw it yourself in a moment, because you were not yet that far and as high as the master himself was. But Tadema did something completely different; he had more the manners of a professor, who gave his lectures. So Roelofs and he actually complemented each other. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I stared at her for many months in my life with a never fading love and with an interest that never diminished. (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)"

"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)"

"Can someone else than a Dutchman [Mesdag] conceive and reproduce nature in such a way [and] present such treasure of poetry in the most un-garnished representation of the most simple reality? (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"When the study of streets [in Brussels, c. 1868] was finished, Mesdag choose a studio a bit further away from the center of the city, in the Rue Van der Weyer, and started to paint there from his window, but in a rather peculiar way. On the windows himself he indicated what he saw outside, in the right proportions; then he transferred it to translucent paper and enlarged it on his canvas. More than one painting was created in this way, including two large canvases representing grounds outside Brussels, arable land and waste fields with dunes in the background and farmhouses with red roofs and white walls in the distance: it is the same subject, [but] with different distances and observed at different atmospheric conditions. It were these two paintings who, for the first time in Brussels, brought Mesdag's name to the attention of the public. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Being self-taught and striving for a broad, fresh original concept of art himself he [ J.W. Bilders ] thought he could not warn Mesdag enough, to be on his guard and not to become a 'little Roelofs'; to point him to look above all with his very own eyes. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"Broadness, in particular, is the great quality that will remain in his possession until his last breath. Just like he knows how to paint broadly and don't need to be shy for living in a grand way, he has gone 'broadly' through all things in life! (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The painter [Mesdag] himself explained his work to me [in his studio, The Hague]. The last two paintings, which had just been finished, presented the fishing boats, leaving the beach in the early morning, with a guy who was still wading through the water very fast; and then the return of the 'bommen' [wooden fishing boats from that time] at sunset, when they are full of herring and therefore lie much deeper in the water.These canvases will be showed in Paris again. Because - said Mr. Mesdag - '..my best works have been exhibited there [Paris Salon]; together they form the development of my oeuvre, and that is why I remain faithful to them'. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Amice, It gives me so much pleasure that when judging Mesdag's work you only talk about the inner mérites [merits] of that work and you abandon the impossible rubbish about his wealth, his presidency of Pulchri.. ..and his art collection. As was expected from you anyway. You say perfectly well that his Water [in his seascapes] is not the strong side and happily you refuse to talk about his infinity of horizon, his space and his mouvement, which everybody always is talking about. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"