"Who has supported his first, shaky steps on the steep and slippery path, who has given him the push to independent progress, who brought him into the temple of immortality? So will the offspring ask. Our answer is: Nature, and only Nature was Schelfhouts teacher. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
Andreas Schelfhout (1787–1870) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer, known for his landscape paintings.
"S. [Schefhout] was educated in the field his fathers [frame maker].. .. when he came to Brickenheimer because his wish was to paint, in which school he soon became a master and performed the decoration commissioned to B. [Brickenheimer] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
"Here are 3 drawings that I have made for You. It will be satisfactory, if it will meet your expectation and what it is for [to make a painting]. The two landscapes are thoughts, but the one that suggests the moonlight is the castle at Doorenwaart in Gelderland. I also painted a painting of that subject which I enjoyed a lot in Amsterdam [because, purchased there by A. B. Roothaan there] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
"Only the way Schelfhout represents winter, in the white garment and with the motley crowd of skaters, we find something tempting about it. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
"..and since we are now living in the Summer-time, I dont have a trick to imagine me Winter so strongly that I would be able to paint one [a winter-landscape].. ..and you must have patience until next winter. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
"..In July [1808], master Breckenheimer was commissioned to decorate the new Leidsche Schouwburg [Theatre-building].. .[Schelfhout] started painting the forest, what he was good at, and I started to help our master to outline the palace. I got ambition in painting the stage, and practiced with Schelfhout drawing after nature before half past six in the morning and after half past eight in the evening - when the days were long, to be clear. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"
"[four years younger!], you better paint houses, you better focus yourself on townscapes. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"