Charley Toorop

"Do you remember how beautiful it was, and that silly Mondrian and those silly Buddha positions right in the middle at the beach [of Domburg, Zeeland, in 1906] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"1. Never knock on doors, or even worse - to open closed doors, 2. always on time for dinner, 3. Do not mess up, 4. never unwashed at the table. Everything else was allowed. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I managed to work two mornings on Eddys portrait in the large painting Three Generations and I could go on working each morning for 1 1/2 hour., so there is some progress [after her attacks].. ..they [her son Edgar Fernhout and his wife] come now every month for a stay of a few days [in her house De Vlerken, in Bergen], for I hope to finish the painting at the end of the year, so I can exhibit it at my large retrospective exhibition. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"We can often characterize the painting art of Charley Toorop as Veristic. She is an Expressionist who wants to be un-expressionistic with an expressionist passion, as indeed many Vérists do. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"There is too much method, too much cliché in the work. One knows nowadays in advance what one will see in a portrait of Charley Toorop. The wide-eyed gaze; the forced colors in the face; the painting of the flesh like carved wood and polychromed; the merciless contour of the hair against the background; the cloddy-like enlargements and intensifications, they dont surprise for long and dont convince us anymore. translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..[in] that gigantic self-portrait we again recognize something of the rite, with which the minister assures us that not the lower, but the Higher is our most precious property. Not a spark of humor has been left here [in her Self-portrait, 1932-33] for us poor non-painters.. ..Good Lord, how un-humoristic, heroic, yes dithyrambic one must consider herself, to be able to paint yourself in such a way as Charley Toorop did here. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The Paris public will initially stare surprised at these expressions of a heavy and gloomy passion.. ..where the Frenchman must first and foremost be struck by the absence of anything specifically considered as feminine and - [what] is not unfamiliar to many male artists: coquetry.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Later, when F. [Henk Fernhout, her former husband, until c. 1916-17; he was an alcoholic] was more and more from home, I painted more and more, [I built] my own individual life - also saving my nerves (which were broken for a long time already). (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"It is always the same: a struggle between making love and working. Together, that is almost impossible - at least for me; struggle between being a woman and creating art. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Maybe you dont know enough about the facts - I mean my life history. Probably you can discover everything in my works well enough, but.. .. perhaps it would be good if I visit you some evening, or you, or you two, for some days here with me [in Bergen ]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The new artist-society will consist of painters, sculptors and architects. The founders don’t intend that the character of the union will be determined by one single art movement. They believe that there is room for every important expression of this period and they intend the new union as a gathering place for the best young artists, who will collectively determine the character of the society. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"As main motif in front ànd large a sled with cheese sparkling orange-yellow - the product [is] carried by two porters, of which the foremost barely and only partly visible - the porter behind, on the other hand, as the only main figure of the whole painting, in his head [expressed] the whole clenched closeness of the Northern Netherlands, in which culminates the serious character of the work.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"