Barend Cornelis Koekkoek

"In my opinion the aim of the painter is similar with that of the poet, insofar that both want to affect the feelings of the viewer or reader. As soon as their scenes.. ..are lacking the mark of nature, of truth, than both will fail to realize it. The Dutch painter feels - as well as the Germans do - the influence of sublime nature, but the Dutch painter first wants to be acquainted with plain truth, to combine it afterwards with the poetic.."

"The free artist must also have the spunk to tear himself away from his first ideas, for experience teaches us that these [ideas] are not always pure, but often false."

"Koekkoek started the canvas in an uniform hue: carmine, sea blue and then, when finishing it, he puts down the hue he want to give the ice.. .Then he places upon that the details of the snow, the traces made by the skaters, the cracks in the ice, the branches of the trees, the stones: after that come the reflections of the figures, houses, trees, etc. People frequently placed (sic) large blocks of ice in the foreground and nearby a hole in the ice, to dip their water."

"The pursuit of perfection in art must always be a noble duty to the artist, but.. .Here [at the Drachenfels ] he feels, more than in any other place, too vividly his inability.. .Stop it, painter! Just please yourself with the impression it makes on your soul; try, if you can, to keep this impression pure, it will teach you how to create ..."

"Forest View represents a level that few of his contemporaries were capable of attaining. The effect of the setting suns warm light on the trees, for instance, is done with great expertise. The idyllic mood of a warm summers day is heightened by the languidly ruminating cattle in the right foreground. On the left, near a little waterfall, a woman is conversing with a man on horseback, observed by a few shepherdesses at the foot of the huge oak. Even the heavily laden donkeys seem unaware of their burdens."

"Fortunately however, is that [painting] school where Mother Nature is placed in the foreground, and where only she is consulted to representate truth on the canvas or panel. Only he knows the secrets of the manifold diversity of nature. His painting is a faithful copy of nature - which is the highest praise for a painter.."