Painters From The Netherlands

"Vincent van Gogh was already there for me even before I started painting myself, actually during the time I became aware. It was the first dispute with my father [ Jan Toorop ] who saw it so differently, for me he was the breakthrough to a new world. It is always a real event to see his work.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I've nailed them to the cross."

"I don't believe you can really give yourself to a man, you can sympathize with him, if you have your own strong creative life, which brings your own philosophy of life."

"..you could call [the two artists Mondrian and Bart van der Leck ] absolute counterparts. Outwardly they are of course both abstract, of course, but I hate such a view on their art. I find it superficial to consider them like that from the very start. Their life and character is also completely different. Van der Leck lives as a peasant and lives a domestic life. Either one is abstract in his soul, or he isn't. Van der Leck is a real realist. Mondrian has always been away from the world, he is a romantic ascetic, a sophisticated monk. Van der Leck is really nice (Dutch: fijn), but he is certainly not sophisticated (Dutch: verfijnd).."

"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)"

"Later, when F. [Henk Fernhout, her former husband, until c. 1916-17; he was an alcoholic] was more and more from home, I painted more and more, [I built] my own individual life - also saving my nerves (which were broken for a long time already). (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

".. What I made here up to now [Paris, 1920] is not very special. Only a painting of my head and Eddy [her son Edgar] with it - including houses and roofs on the background - has something of what I intend to.. ..but one thing I know now for sure. That I was shocked by the [her own] paintings I received here from Holland, for example the old man I painted. It is perhaps the best thing I ever made, but what a distress all together. I want everything gradually becoming more clear. And I want to make happy, radiant things at any cost. I mean inwardly radiant and tight and silent. I really believe this will come.. .Back home again I shall study and start from the bottom again; very simple things - study flowers, hands and people's faces and learn how to paint and draw well. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The simple natural form doesn't exist for the new artist; there is only a expressive one.. .But is is more difficult to see the natural in images than to listen to only abstract impressions. To be part of the cosmic means to include the recognition of the natural element that leads to seeing in a spirited way. (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)"

"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)"

"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)"

"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 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)"

"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)"

"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)"

"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)"

"She gives a painting art that calls the things of life, without frills, without fuss, not tragic of emphasis, or elegiac of presentation. She presents the images of hard life, which is not only beauty. (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)"

"..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)"

"You know the tender side of my work. That side was always dominating me. I feel the joy of that tenderness most strongly when I think of a finch-nest with cobweb and lichen on a May-morning. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I wanted to paint crows in a big spot of lonely black with a digger head and paws. But stronger was nature which forced me to make a beast, sparkling of blue and purple, a subdued pleasure for the eyes. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"What dusty and sober can a day in August be. You would like to take yourself away on such a day because of all the misery that is trying to penetrate you. But you know: the serene evening is coming and the lapwing sounds over the low fields. You are walking in the dew and see the backs of the cows and the steaming trees. and the thought of all these things blesses that fierce August Day, and you don't start to grumble and scold, or try to change or improve it, but you are seeking a quiet, shadowy corner somewhere on a deserted place here and there and you wait and know that it will come. Nature doesn't hide anything, but gives everything; and those days in August, they also have to get a place in our spiritual community. But the nights with winter-storms, they will also come and the lovely mornings and evenings in May, which are nothing but profundity. Only that depth, which we will get by experiencing all extremes, can create true friendship. Shall fate allow us to walk through all these phases? (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I really love Thijs Maris and his works possess for me a peculiar charm.. .You will certainly love Thijs Maris yourself and then you know.. ..how lovely it is to walk along in his childlike ardour. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The miracle has come. So suddenly and so directly that I still cann't comprehend it myself. I'm engaged. My girl is the pastor of and her name is Annie Zernike. You will get to know her and then you will realize what a great and delicious thing this means to me. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..Painting never means just never picturing the material things, but it is a psychological function, an expression of how his mind [of the artist] responds to things. So that is quite a difference with: painting is showing the beauty of things. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"However, I gradually start to appreciate the Japanese print art [in wood prints] as a whole less than a small year ago. We can discuss it later, sometimes. For the time being I can say that the external elegance and skills are often not supported by a deep inner empathy with the depicted things. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..the distressing aspect of [[w:Vincent van Gogh|Vincent [van Gogh],]] who often presents things so tightly and so painfully, you can not find in my work (character), and I don't search for it. The spiritual aspect is the essence in Vincent's work, and the pictorial is subordinate to that.. .Now I feel myself most comfortable (unfortunately or happily) with an extreme refinement of colors and form; it always (although I sometimes want it differently) ends with that: to give [present] what I feel as my greatest happiness. Now it might be possible that this will remain the highest goal for me, not so bad; every little bird sings its own song.. .Following Vincent and being no Vincent in the mind (may be this is desirable for nobody) would be absurd and criminal."

"I have finished a fairly large painting, the goat; I sometimes spoke to you about my plan. I believe it has become a real painting, and very complete. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..[that] the landscape will become directly or indirectly an object of study for me.. (a month later:) ..So I have planned the project – already my intention for some years, as you know - I (almost) finished the painting of Woudsterweg.. .There you have it already.. .a landscape, Amice. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Besides, the entire impressionism usually presented merely the things from the outside. And sometimes they did it so perfectly that a seventeen[the] century painting looks clumsy, as far as seeing is concerned."

"The lazy, carbon-black mutt, huddled together and missing all kinds of grace has, just because of that my sympathy. Because outward appearance doesn't matter here it is so beautiful and true but also so difficult, that it seems to me almost impossible to reproduce the beast in such a way that not everybody will say: Yuck, what a nasty black beast.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"A young painter whose name was so far completely unknown to us, but now already a notable appearance.. .And curious is the way the surfaces - which are bordered by lines and filled - sometimes remind of.. ..Perhaps the former activity of Mankes, who has worked on a glass-painting studio, is in this way influencing his painting style. Anyway, this work is certainly special. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"They say that he [ Floris Verster ] has made beautiful impressionist things in the past, afterwards he suddenly has achieved a tender drawing; in this time for example he painted dead rooks, so intimately pure and at the same time monumental, that it seemed to me the best what was made here [in the Netherlands] about that time. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Yet I would like to get acquainted with Japanese drawings or paintings.. ..especially as they appreciate birds so strongly and therefore already they are my friends. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"For example, in recent times I was looking to avoid in my works the greasy parts, which in the dark places [of the painting] are obstructing the material expression so heavily to appear. Rubbing with pumice and (the use of a lot of) oil I dispensed and then, look... like in my older works all details seem to appear much better, like in all the feathers of the crow; The job now has become much bigger, but no problem. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..drivers, docker and skippers.. ..at the canal the whole day they are loading peat and every horse stands still for half an hour [his time for sketching]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

".. a crow, a quick, tame animal with immaculate feathering walks around here at home; I hope to be able to benefit a lot of it, because I love crows so much. The surroundings here [of ] are very different than around Delft; more forest, sometimes even heath, often overgrown with beautiful, white birch trees. I have not yet come to work outside however, because, when I think of my crow I walk home again, but may be it change, who knows. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"My surprise and thanks are great.. ..and what a package. What attracts me most of all, yes, really gives me great joy [is] that little book ['Wild birds at home', by photographer Charles Kirk, London. 1906] with birds, really something to look forward to. There are pictures in [of birds] which arouse more wonderful thoughts than all real art. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"It [an owl] is like coming from a fairy-tale, something royal fragile, something that you would never want to touch, Yes to me it has become fully absolute because of that silver breast. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dutch most silent painter.. .This silence is caused by balanced compositions and subdued use of color, as well as a hardly visible brushstroke. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"While holding a keen eye on all the yelling at the markets, let's prefer to stay away from many of those things that attract at times other painters - if necessary, unknown - to be able to continue the work quietly at times. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"What it's all about in Mankes' landscapes is the human relationship to the larger order of nature and cosmos; they allow us human beings to experience our physical limitation, but at the same time our insignificance within God's creation. Paintings like 'Woudsterweg' and 'Maannacht' are furthermore filled with the consoling awareness of being part of this. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Mankes' work is filled with the idea that God can be known in nature and the seemingly humble things around us. During the first decades of the twentieth century [in The Netherlands] this idea became fashionable within circles of free-thinking Protestants and religiously colored doctrines such as theosophy. The power of Mankes' painting is that this idea is not imposed on the image, but it mixes rather stealthily and completely natural with realism in his landscapes. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Jan had a great love and knowledge of birds. How poetic and faithful he painted them to the very essence: crows, thrushes, owls, magpies and goldfinches. His father had taught him the first knowledge of birds, on which he himself continued with the help of a Zeiss binoculars and [[w:Theo Thijssen|[Theo] Thijssen's]] unsurpassed [book] 'Vogeljaar'. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"But precisely this I admire so strongly in the imagination of animals by Mankes, he saw the animal so tenderly, and at the same time so full of his own animal good-right and delightful seclusion, not as a spiritual or aesthetic pretext, but as a beautiful truth and divine perfection. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"He frequently visited my church [in , Anne was the new pastor there, and the first female pastor in The Netherlands!] for quite some time [c. 1912]; by his appearance, so different from that of the sons of the local farmers, I immediately noticed him. My woman sexton - she knew everything about everyone - could only tell me that he had lived in for some years and was painting now and then. But she didn't know what he was making, she thought it was nothing special.. .But nobody had ever heard of the painter Jan Mankes. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I don't know of any other painter in The Netherlands for whom painting has remained so extremely just means, without ever becoming a goal. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"