“Do you know what I really need to make a well-finished painting? 2 years at Gérome or somebody like him, working in the studio.... because that is the only way to become a good painter. That whole business.. then a small watercolour than a little painting and finally when I have earned so much that I could study, I have become too old and too miserable.”

—  George Hendrik Breitner

translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch (citaat van Breitner's brief, in het Nederlands:) Weet U wat ik nodig heb om een goed afgewerkt schilderij te maken? 2 jaar bij Gérome of zoo iemand op 't atelier te werken.. ..want dat is de enige manier om een goed schilder te worden. Dat gewurm, dan een aquarelletje dan een schilderijtje en eindelijk als ik daardoor zo veel verdiend heb dat ik zou kunnen studeeren ben ik te oud en te beroerd geworden.
In his letter to A.P. van Stolk, nr. 51, c. 1884; RKD-Archive, The Hague; as cited in master-thesis Van Gogh en Breitner in Den Haag, Helewise Berger, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, p. 29
Breitner responds to accusations from his Maecenas that he refused to learn from well-known Dutch painters how to finish his paintings well. In 1884 already Breitner started in the studio of Cormon in Paris
before 1890

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George Hendrik Breitner 31
Dutch painter and photographer 1857–1923

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