"[W]hile contemplating Hals, Rembrandt, Ruysdael, and others, I constantly thought of the saying, that when Delacroix paints, it is exactly like a lion devouring a piece of flesh. How true that is! And, Theo, when I think of what one might call "the technique crew" how tedious they all are! ...For is it not exasperating to see the same dodges everywhere... everywhere the same tedious gray-white light, in the place of light and chiaroscuro, colour, local colour instead of shades of colour... Colour as colour means something ...That which has a ...really beautiful effect, is also right. When Veronese painted the portraits of his beau monde in the "Marriage at Cana," he used all the wealth of his palette in deep violets and gorgeous golden tones for the purpose, while he also introduced a faint azure blue and a pearly white which do not spring into the foreground. He throws it back, and it looks well in the neighbourhood of the sky and of the marble palaces, which strangely complete the figures; it changes quite of its own accord. The background is so beautiful that it seems to have come into being quite naturally and spontaneously out of the colour scheme. ...The point is to think about a thing, to consider its surroundings, and to let it grow out of the latter. ...I do not wish to argue studying from Nature or the struggling with reality, out of existence; for years I myself worked in this way with almost fruitless and, in any case, wretched results. ...One begins by plaguing one's self to no purpose in order to be true to nature ...But these two methods cannot be pursued together. Diligent study, even if it seem to be fruitless, leads to familiarity with nature and to a thorough knowledge of things. The greatest and most powerful imagination has also been able to produce things from reality, before which people have stood in dumb amazement."