My sketch [in watercolor, made in 1861] represents the Hunebed in Tinaarlo in Drenthe, which I drew a few years ago; I have still the intention to pa… - Willem Roelofs

(original Dutch: citaat van Willem Roelofs, in het Nederlands:) ..elken dag die ik bij den heer B [zijn leermeester ] kan profiteren is alweder gewonnen.. ..van dag tot dag wordt mijn ambitie grooter.

..when making a painting after a study, it costs me a lot of effort to follow this study very well. One is very much inclined to make something different, so-called better, and that's why people usually get confused. A good outdoor-study has a breath of nature in it which must not be neglected or destroyed. You have to get everything out of that study and not just a third or half. If you can really improve one or the other: a la bonheur, but otherwise it is advisable to follow the study obediently as a guide. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)

[one watercolor] is in spite of all its difficulties, and perhaps because she has given so much trouble, less fresh and has become a little heavy - I myself have considered for a long time whether she was good enough to send it [for a exhibition in Utrecht] (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)