Painters From The Netherlands

"Jongkind is beginning to make us digest a kind of painting of which the hard outer skin hides an excellent and most tasty fruit. I too have profited by coming in the door which he already had forced, and I have begun, albeit timidly, tp present my seascapes.. ..the longer one looks at his watercolors, the more one wonders how he does them! They are made from nothing and yet the fluidity and the density of the sky and clouds are reproduced with unbelievable precision.. ..Nothing alters him, success, honours, fortunes, attacks or disdain. He sizes men up for himself; he knows that the disdained Corot is the master of landscape, that the insulted Monet will soon be the glory of his age; he knows how to assess the weakness in the art of Isabey or Troyon."

"[Jongkind].. ..his painting was too new and far too artistic to be appreciated in 1862 at his prices. Moreover, no one was as bad at making himself valued, as he was. He was a straight-forward and simple kind of man, who could hardly speak bad French and was very shy. But he was very outgoing that day [in 1864, somewhere around [[w:Le Havre| Le Havre] ]. He asked to see my sketches, invited me to come and work with him, explained the whys and wherefores underlining his work and thereby, completed the training that I had already received from Boudin. He became from this moment my true master and it [is] to him, that I owe the definitive training of my eyes."

"Before Segers began touching up his prints with the brush, he had used hand-tinted papers on which to print his etchings.. .By varying the tints he was able to clarify the relation of successive planes to each other. But spatial clarity was not enough. What mattered more to Segers was bringing out the structure of the landscape.. ..he goes especially far in specifying, with the brush [in the etching] the particularities of the terrain."

"[ Rembrandt ] admired Seger's reworking of the [etch-]plate to create different states. This adventurous approach to printmaking [new developed by Segers] was taken up enthusiastically by Rembrandt, and gives a new significance undreamt of by Segers."

"..although he even painted and printed on his shirts and the sheets from his bed (for he also printed paintings), he and his whole family remained in abject poverty, so that his dejected wife eventually complained that there was not a piece of linen left that had not been used for paintings or prints."

"Unfortunately, we have no clues about Segers's reputation as an etcher during his lifetime, and it seems very probable that those of his prints which have survived were originally gathered in a few large, privately owned and therefore inaccessible groups. This inaccessibility partly explains their minimal influence on later artists."

"The method of printing with three wooden blocks produces painterly prints. But Hercules Segers first applied a layer of paint to his papers or fabrics for his smooth compositions of skies, horizons and foregrounds, and then printed on to them, in a very effective and painterly manner."

"It is a common failing among practitioners of art to become accustomed to a way of coloring, as if things were bound to their manner, and not their manner bound to the nature of things. Many, however, because of a certain natural inclination, adopted manners of coloring that seemed ideally suited to that branch of art to which they were most inclined. And so Hercules Segers concerned himself with savage mountains: and one [another artist:] Liefrinck painted imaginative rocks. Gemstones are also wonderfully colored, and the attractions of shells and other treasures from the sea have their particular admirers."

"And it is understandable, if it were possible to print finished paintings, as Hercules Segers has done with landscapes in our time, that it would no longer be easy to find anyone who would want to devote much labor and time to producing his works."

"Another fitting example here is that of Hercules Segers, disregarded and yet a great artist... ...His observation was unwavering and effective, particularly in his design of landscapes and compositions, with imaginary mountains and caves. It was as if he were pregnant with whole provinces, giving birth to them with immeasurable spaces, and picturing them to a marvel in his paintings and prints."

"I started reading Flaubert's 'Salambô'. The first chapter was very strong. I prefer Flaubert above Zola, the Concourt even more. No doubt you know the Concourts, Edm. and Jules, two brothers. 'Manette Salomon' is one of their most beautiful creations. If you could read that, I believe you do me and yourself a great pleasure. The type of Chassagnol, the man who understands so much about Art - yes, he has the purest ideas on art of all - I find [him] adorable. He understands everything and that's why he can not be an artist himself or the greatest. I recommend that book to anyone, layman or painter and I will buy it myself."

"My drawings for the art exhibition don't get finished and time is running out. 15 or 16 Dec. I believe. Of course they show soldiers once again and of course the people say that it looks like Neuville, although that man doesn't see any color. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"If you want to help me, and I know you do, believe in me. And do not help to criticize or break me, as some people do gladly, who are indifferent or hostile [towards me].. ..You must have faith in me. Believe me. And if you want to believe someone about me, believe an artist, someone like Mesdag or Blommers or Maris [one of Breitner's teachers, c. 1880], but not Kuyper and the likes of him.. ..and hear what they say and put more value on the talk 'finish better' and 'he is stubborn' - from people who, let's be honest, actually know nothing about art. (The Hague, 1881)"

"Yesterday I visited Rotterdam for a while.. .It is a beautiful city. Always turbulent, dirty and picturesque, especially the vest and the harbor-neighborhoods. For the newer city I don't care at all."

"What I consider to do with the new course [at The Academy of Art in The Hague] is: in the morning doing large plaster and in the afternoon painting or drawing after Nature, what I am doing already for some time, and [drawing] horses in the Municipal Horse Riding School. The Director is Sir Krüger, a very charming German who has seen of course many horses and so he knows how to show me the mistakes I make, which are not few. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"He had nervous manners and his shyness made him seem unfriendly. A normal conversation was impossible: he spoke in short stiff sentences that were regularly interrupted by an abrupt laughter. Unexpected sounds or light could startle him. He preferred to play chess with Willen Witsen rather than having a conversation."

"What wonderful weather it has been today, I had not been outside for so long and so I spent the entire day out of doors. Wonderful. Nature is always fresh and new and to stay fresh she is the only thing giving all that is necessary. Everything is rich. I mean, not only the outdoors, landscape or something like that, but simply everything, yes everything except your workplace, and not even excluding that. 'Le spectacle est dans le spectateur' (the spectacle is in the spectator). (The Hague, 1881)"

"Once I heard him [Breitner] saying: 'I do not understand that you paint the sea with your talent - I think the sea is ugly'. When I showed him a big moon-sea [painting of Mendlik] at another time, he exclaimed 'What a beautiful sky you have painted, but underneath that you should not have painted the sea but a farm with a yellow-lit window and dark trees'. I laughingly answered: 'Yes, and a gray horse' [which Breitner often painted in his Amsterdam city-paintings] and Breitner had to laugh with me."

"Most treatments [of several paintings of Breitner] included the removal of a highly yellowed varnish. The varnish removals showed that many representations are cool and clear in color, in contrast to the traditional image of Breitner, being a painter with a predominantly brownish and gloomy palette. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"With his sketchbooks in [our] hand, we now are able to follow the routes that Breitner walked from his home to his studio or his favorite pub [in Amsterdam center]. He often passed the same places, which he sketched, just like the people he saw there. Here and there he also scribbled an address or another kind of note.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"How could he grumble about the disappearance of the tram-horses [in Amsterdam city], which were replaced by 'those ugly, soulless boxes', as he called the first electric trams."

"At Dam square [Amsterdam] we sometimes waited a long time for the horses he needed [for a new painting], four white horses which came back from the Haarlemmerdijk. Then he made sketches and I helped him to distract curiosity [of the people at Dam square]. Sometimes I did object to such a trip, when it was blowing hard or raining, but then he was in his element: 'But dude, don't you see how beautiful it is."

"When, as he recently did [c. 1894-95] Breitner is painting a girl in a Japanese dress, then he is not interested in the costume, the masquerade-side of the representation, in the more or less pure ethnological authenticity, - but he is struck first and foremost by the beautiful contrast that such a white or vermilion-red rich embroidered dress creates against a dull black piece of furniture, a golden-yellow pillow or a lavishly colored oriental carpet. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I did visit the Breitner exhibition and I enjoyed it very much. A real painter.. .And what a delightful colors, what a richness of wealthy grays and what is everything thrown upon it. Nevertheless I am happy that the world has more faces.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Some smudges of paint, which should be a flower market, a spot that had to imagine a drunkard leaning against the wall, and in which you - looking carefully - could still detect the true attitude. In those days he (Breitner, c. 1882-85) still thought that those painted spots represented the subject clearly enough, because he could see it all in them. He [also] talked about horsemen, running towards him from a hollow way, showed in a completely flat way [the large painting 'Cavalry' ], but I am not sure if I have already seen a kind of sketch of it at that time. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I received the farrier [painting] in good order. I think the work has improved since I saw it recently in Rotterdam [in Breitner's studio]. You were then hesitating to paint on it again, but now the broad conception has won, and the light has also improved a lot; although I think that you have progressed strongly last year, you need more workmanship in order to call a painting finished in the eyes of us, laymen. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Mr. Breitner's ridiculous landscape blotching. I am not sure if Mr. Breitner's piece is not a city or village picture, or indeed not a group of people. A mass of blue at the top does make me feel that it is outside in the open air. Have the gentlemen perhaps been sent by some Academy or other to make Impressionism ridiculous? (1884)"

"I hope that in the meantime you will say farewell to the untidy impressionistic manner, based on nothing and.. ..pursue that which is within your reach to develop the talent you have, with seriousness and hard work. (The Hague, 1883)"

"See the wonderful harmony of emotional colors, that warm white, that greasy metal gray; with notes of dark blue and somber yellow; that reflected-dark, glowing environment with here and there a mat sweep of light.. ..at the exhibitions where it was exposed, it was misunderstood – it was placed in a corner or was hung too high. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..and if you suddenly turn around, it seems as if the detachment of Breitner's cavalry [painting 'Upcoming Hussars'] is direrctly tearing up to you, because there is so much life in the painting. But you have to satisfy yourself with that first impression. The work doesn't withstand a further investigation; then the horses appear badly drawn, as also the horsemen who are more smudges than human forms. Breitner misses his goal by his his exaggeration of an direction which seeks to represent an impression full of unity and strength, and he lapses into the aberrations of Impressionism. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I've spoken to Breitner again, about those three compositions in progress [three studies by Breitner: 'Charge of the hussars', a 'Drunkard' and a 'Flower market' - Vincent wrote about in his last letter to Theo], It was indeed so that he had done them in a moment when he was out of sorts [Breitner was ill]. He told me that he regretted doing them like that, and showed me an altered composition of the drunkard and studies of low street women that were infinitely better. And I also saw some watercolors in the making and a painting of a farrier's that were done with a calmer and more correct hand and head. I read a book he lent me, 'Soeur Philomène' by [brothers] De Goncourt, who wrote Gavarni. The story is set in a hospital, very good. ([English translation, VanGoghletters online)"

"It is not possible to make such things [paintings of street-views] without the help of photos. How do you want me to make an Amsterdam street. I make thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook. if it's possible I make a study from a window. and a sketch for the details after my choice. The composition is mine anyhow. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The so-called bourgeoisie doesn't provide any substance for my art. The character [of the models] there is too faint and without any spirit. It doesn't represent a race in an artistic sense. So there is no other choice for me [than folk women]. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Dam Square is the center of movement in our city [Amsterdam]. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"At the moment I quite often go drawing together with Breitner, a young painter who's acquainted with Rochussen as I am with Mauve. He draws very skillfully and very differently from me, and we often draw types together in the soup kitchen or the waiting room &c. He sometimes comes to my studio to look at woodcuts, and I go to see his ones as well. letter 204, from the original letter; location and translation: Van Gogh museum, Amsterdam"

"In the works I paint [now] I can't see any guarantee that I shall make progress.. ..while better skilled people [artists] - even though their work does not seem so good at the moment - can move forward much more easily. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Snow had fallen and from the museum [in Pittsburgh, The ] you had a beautiful view of a valley with a railway, through some sheds, etc. But I could not finish it, and today, Sunday, I went back there again, but then the snow was already so far away that I could not make anything of it any more. It is a pity. Otherwise I could have sold something. [The painting was sold to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1934] (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"He [Breitner] is working on a large painting, a market where a lot of figures have to be painted. Yesterday evening I went out with him to look for types of figures on the street [in The Hague], for studying them afterwards in the studio with a model. In this way I have drawn an old woman.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..but also for the person who is visiting Paris later in his life for the very first time, something unusual will happen.. ..then there appears for the man of age a light - a light in which he sees the dreamy images of his life transforming into more tangible and more solid forms. Because that city has created our modern culture, and the movements of life in most countries are just a reflex of those which are starting in France's capital. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I learned from Nol that nowadays you [ Willem Witsen ] are especially engaged upon enlargements [of photos]. I would like to ask you if you perhaps have a piece of moorland (foreground) for me, I would be very grateful to you. Because I am working on a painting with a large foreground. You may have seen it, with that artillery in it. It must be a simple sloping ground. Without much frills of sand - etc. nothing but heather.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Recently I dreamed of you [of the artist Herman van der Weele and his wife] and that you two were very rich and lived in a beautiful place and that I sat in your room with you and Herman, with beautiful fabrics and wallpapers that I couldn't stop looking to them and you wore black glasses, just like me now [to protect his eyes], but they [black glasses] were so amazingly beautiful and they suited you so well, as is only possible in a dream, and your dress was beautifully deep red blue black with exotic figures woven into it and the walls were yellow and pink. Anyway it was all a miracle of beauty and I wished that.. ..my eyes were healthy again and that we each could spent hundred thousand guilders a week, then we had built a beautiful yacht and we all sailed to the country of the Mikado [Japan], to have a look there. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Hartenstraat - the air is strong light - houses, illuminated from the top, left - flags translucent (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"That painting with that man - that drunken man - was first a soup-distribution [on the streets], which I had seen, and for which I also made those studies of which you speak. Also failed; simply due to lack of perseverance. I have made another drawing of it, which V. Wisselingh found quite good and he afterwards sold to an American, and he does not know where it has gone. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I now have an abundance of models. Every woman I address on the street understands me pretty well. I never experienced anything like that, otherwise they always called me names. It is horrible that I don't have anyone [in Amsterdam] like you, because the only good I have heard about my works came from you. So visit me often. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..in an review of the exhibition in [[w:Arti et Amicitiae|Arti, [in Amsterdam] ]] you say that most of my submissions are not meant as a study. I don't know what you mean by study. I understand a study as a work I am painting directly after nature, with the aim hold on the casual tone,color and line. All of mine that is presented there, is immediately felt in nature and not one of the sketches is done by heart after received impressions for any paintings. I thought I had to tell you this, because then you might get a different view of it - whether you think they are more worthy or not because of this, I don't want to judge.. ..yours GH Breitner"

"Breitner, whom I didn't expect in the least because he had apparently broken off contact completely some time ago, turned up yesterday. That pleased me because in the past — when I was first here [in The Hague] — he was very pleasant to go walking with. I mean to go out together not in the country but in the city itself, to look for figures and nice scenes. Here in The Hague there isn't a single person I've ever done that with in the city itself; most think the city ugly and pass by all of it. And yet it's really beautiful in the city sometimes, don't you agree?** Quote of Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to Theo, from the Hague, c. July 1883 - original manuscript at Van Gogh Museum, location Amsterdam - inv. nos. b322 a-c V/1962"

"Hartenstraat - 1 o'clock in the afternoon - the flags throw shadow on the houses"

"Be so kind and write me by return, with drawing and explanation, how I can make a [photo] camera. - as I then saw at your home. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Bosboom has just as anyone else fussed around things [paintings] from time to time to get his money. Only very few people can escape this.. .It is almost impossible that an artist who doesn't have the gift to work for the market as well, will always have to make good things. Because, when he has no money he has to earn it. And he will have to strain himself. For something he appreciates the least of all. He can never neglect this.. .The examples you can see everywhere. If you may write something about him [Bosboom] again, I hope you will take this into account too. (translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"This place [Breitner's new residential location at the Jacob van Campen-straat (De Pijp district), Amsterdam - a newly built street with construction activities all around], is just about the same as the Hobbema-straat, and that is precisely not the character of Amsterdam.."