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,… - Charley Toorop

(original Dutch: citaat van Charley Toorop's brief, in het Nederlands:) Het is altijd weer dat: strijd tusschen vrijen en werken. Samen gaat haast niet – bij mij tenminste; strijd tussen vrouw zijn en scheppende werken.

Made desperate attempts - worked for 3 weeks on a self-portrait [in Paris] intended for you, have scratched off everything yesterday! Maybe I can go on with it again in the studio [she was would get on the Rue des Plantes in Paris]. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)

.. What I made here up to now [Paris, 1920] is not very special. Only a painting of my head and Eddy [her son Edgar] with it - including houses and roofs on the background - has something of what I intend to.. ..but one thing I know now for sure. That I was shocked by the [her own] paintings I received here from Holland, for example the old man I painted. It is perhaps the best thing I ever made, but what a distress all together. I want everything gradually becoming more clear. And I want to make happy, radiant things at any cost. I mean inwardly radiant and tight and silent. I really believe this will come.. .Back home again I shall study and start from the bottom again; very simple things - study flowers, hands and people's faces and learn how to paint and draw well. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)