Charley Toorop on Knowledge

"Frankly speaking, I hate modern German art .. .I don't believe it is art. It's Journalism. If you see a work of Braque, there is culture. Yes, it is interesting , but interesting is a nasty word; that is precisely a word that fits that kind of art, especially on Dix. Those people don't develop. They start by immediately systematizing everything. Their intellect is against them."

".. What I made here up to now is not very special. Only a painting of my head and Eddy 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 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."