I hope to compensate this year [in 1866 Roelofs was seriously ill] the damage of so little studies [watercolors and drawings] once and for all becaus… - Willem Roelofs

Then make those studies outside. With the utmost simplicity you try to get rid of all the so-called manners, and try in one word to follow nature with feeling, but without thinking about the works of others. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)

(original Dutch: citaat van Willem Roelofs, in het Nederlands:) In den laatsten tijd vraagt men mij steeds landschap met beesten zoodat ik mij van dit jaar veel op studie van koeijen heb toegelegd.

I have experienced this country of the great mountains [Switzerland] superb! .. ..[but] I positively believe that nature, most appropriate to be reproduced in painting, is the modest landscape which seems just ordinarily and very insignificant. (translation from original French: Fons Heijnsbroek)