Willem Roelofs quotes

I wonder [interviewer: I hear him saying quite soon] or that line [in the picture he is just working on] doesn't repeat itself. It's more or less the same, isn't it? on both sides, don't you think so? [(interviewer) 'Maybe it is!' - I dare to say; there is no escape; I have to give advice] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek) (Willem Roelofs)
We separate color and drawing because we have to. But nature doesn't. She doesn't give something a shape, for coloring it only afterwards. Form and color are inherent properties of the object that we have got as thing to paint. If we neglect one of both, we only give half.
Willem Roelofs
Dear Sir Verloren. Today I send you a drawing for your art-reviews. I would liked to have done more for you, but I have many demands for drawings from all sides and I am still very busy with paintings after my studies I made during the last trip. I hope that the drawing will be acceptable. The price is 150 guilders. I am not sure you need a title, call it just simply, 'Bij een Drentsch dorp' (At a village in Drenthe).
Willem Roelofs
Ships, houses, mills... in one word everything that is made by people must stand upright and be painted with care. This is actually a good presentation compared to other, less symmetrical things, like the trees, skies, etc. It doesn't create the painting, but it certainly strengthen the illusion. It's just like somebody who is neatly dressed, but whose tie is coming off. The windows of a house must be straight, a mill in a pure construction, the blades well-positioned in perspective.
Willem Roelofs
.. when making a painting after a study, it costs me a lot of effort to follow this study very well. One is very much inclined to make something different, so-called better, and that's why people usually get confused. A good outdoor-study has a breath of nature in it which must not be neglected or destroyed. You have to get everything out of that study and not just a third or half. If you can really improve one or the other: a la bonheur, but otherwise it is advisable to follow the study obediently as a guide.
Willem Roelofs
I was sorry for Gabriel that all the efforts you have employed so diligently were in vain to help him to sell one of his paintings in [the exposition in Amsterdam, in] 'Arti'. Is there not any chance to order from him a small presentable painting (backed up by me, if it will help) for one or the other? He really deserves it and hundred guilders can mean so much at some moments.
Willem Roelofs
.. it is a masterpiece [painting of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek: 'View on the Woods' 1839, with sizes 176 x 160 cm], a well-executed brave undertaking to imagine something like that on a large scale with such an elaborateness. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
[one watercolor] is in spite of all its difficulties, and perhaps because she has given so much trouble, less fresh and has become a little heavy - I myself have considered for a long time whether she was good enough to send it [for a exhibition in Utrecht] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
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)
Willem Roelofs
I can not get used to the idea of staying here [in Belgium] always. One stays always a 'stranger' here and I miss the support from each other one has in his own country. I sometimes wonder what will be more my advantage, to be here [Belgium] or with us in The Hague... It always seemed to me that it doesn't look very brilliant with us [in The Hague] and I believe to be here [in Brussels] more in the heart of the movements in art, but sometimes I dislike Belgium.
Willem Roelofs
Lately I have been asking for landscape [paintings] with animals, so I have devoted a lot of time this year sketching cows. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek) (Willem Roelofs)
[intention to make a voyage of discovery through The Netherlands] ... with the aim to apply it as a painter, as well as in my quality of entomologist [specialism, snout beetle].... what parts, provinces or regions of our country [ are] 'least' visited from an entomological point of view..?
Willem Roelofs
I will soon have finished another drawing [= watercolor], in the spirit as Den Tessaro [art-seller in Antwerp] wished another one, that is 'airy' and 'thin', with 'lots of space', etc.-. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
[a landscape painter cannot do with] being stupid-natural.... all that art would be [made] in vain if the feeling stayed away. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
I certainly believe that the simple landscape which seems less impressive is the nature that is most proper to paint.
Willem Roelofs
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.
Willem Roelofs
.. and then it remains you to re-create your study, the fragment, into a painting. For remember; these are two [different] things: Nature is the material from which we must take. But don't be fooled by the modern theories, that imitating, copying nature would be 'everything'. The goal, the Art's aim is .... to move..
Willem Roelofs
The drawings [his watercolors] usually succeed in one day or at most two days or they develop difficult and usually don't finish well, then.... [I hope] the end will be as good as the beginning. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
There is still some study [to do] here for the Dutch landscape, and I believe the best I can do is to stay some time longer. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
I repainted the only unsold picture that was [exhibited] in Rotterdam last year. It seems to me that it looks quite pleasing and good now... I want you to ask him [the client] seven hundred guilders.... for six hundred as lowest price I would be willing to sell it and if you think - knowing him - it would be better to ask that price at once, so do it.
Willem Roelofs
Bosboom seemed to have enjoyed my drawing [= watercolor] - He gave me a small visual comment - which I accepted with thanks and will follow. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek) (Willem Roelofs)
I have focused on your desire to bring in more effect [in the watercolor].... with more light in the drawing, [what] was not the least difficult.... [this operation] has passed tricky moments; but I believe I have remained master of the area and have made a drawing [watercolor] of aspect [? ] and color.
Willem Roelofs
.. every day I can benefit from Mr. B [his teacher, Van de Sande Bakhuyzen ] is another profit.... day by day my ambition is growing.
Willem Roelofs
.. at least I have the conviction of being honest and I do despise most of all those.... alienating works of art [eg. of Seurat ], the disease of our time. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)
Willem Roelofs
The goal, the pursuit of art is to move, like music does; to create sensations in our mind..
Willem Roelofs