“Be something, be yourself; if not, ]then] throw your palette in the fire. Form a school if you wish, but it must come from the inside of you, but you yourself may not belong to any school.”

translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch / citaat van Paul Gabriël, in Nederlands: Wees wat, weest U zelve, zoo niet gooi uw palet in ’t vuur. Vormt een school zoo ge wilt, maar het moet uit U komen, maar gij zelve mag tot geen school behooren.
In a letter of Gabriël, Brussel (14 Oct. 1879), to his student then Willem Bastiaan Tholen; in Gabriël, P.J.C, ed. Jeltes, H.F.W.; Gebroeders Binger, Amsterdam 1926; as cited in an excerpt of RKD Archive, The Hague https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/136
1860's + 1870's

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Paul Gabriël 12
painter (1828-1903) 1828–1903

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“Be something, be yourself; if not, ]then] throw your palette in the fire. Form a school if you wish, but it must come from the inside of you, but you yourself may not belong to any school. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

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version in original Dutch / citaat van Paul Gabriël, in Nederlands: Wees wat, weest U zelve, zoo niet gooi uw palet in ’t vuur. Vormt een school zoo ge wilt, maar het moet uit U komen, maar gij zelve mag tot geen school behooren.
In a letter of Gabriël, Brussel (14 Oct. 1879), to his student then Willem Bastiaan Tholen; in Gabriël, P.J.C, ed. Jeltes, H.F.W.; Gebroeders Binger, Amsterdam 1926; as cited in an excerpt of RKD Archive, The Hague https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/136
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