Do you like to see what can be transformed from a flat, elementary rural scene — bearing the stamp of nature, the mark of truth — into something most beautiful and graceful? Look at the works of our great [painter] Schelfhout. There you will find represented plain nature at the most elegant, but moreover with a faithfulness and truth, which only Schelfhout can represent.
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 …
Immediately and definitively [after starting a painting] I determine the effect of sunlight, day and shadow, without being concerned with any detail. This enable me to see in the started painting the whole of it, which my mind already saw before I begun to work — I see it appearing on the panel or canvas rather soon and can consider in this way the harmony of the composed objects and colors.