“You know the tender side of my work. That side was always dominating me. I feel the joy of that tenderness most strongly when I think of a finch-nest with cobweb and lichen on a May-morning.”
translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek
(original Dutch: citaat van Jan Mankes, in het Nederlands:) Je kent de teedere kant van mijn werk. Die kant heeft me steeds overheerscht. Ik voel de blijdschap om dat teedere het sterkst als ik aan een vinkennest denk, met spinrag en korstmos op een mei-ochtend.
Quote, in a writing to his wife Anne, Nov. 1919, in Jan Mankes - kunstbeschouwingen van Albert Plasschaert & Just Havelaar; publisher J.A.A.M. van Es, Wassenaar, 1927; as cited by Susan van den Berg, in 'Tableau Fine Arts Magazine', 29e Jaargang, nummer 1, Feb/March 2007, p. 78
1915 - 1920
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Jan Mankes 11
Dutch painter 1889–1920Related quotes

in 'Undated notes' 1950; as quoted in The Art of Henry Moore, Will Grohmann, Thames and Hudson, London 1960, n.p.
1940 - 1955

After a Dutch newspaper prematurely! reported his death in 1902
1870 - 1903

The phrase in French is found in Étienne Blanchard (1941), "Recueil d'idées", p. 76: "Quand je m'approche d'un enfant, il m'inspire deux sentiments: la tendresse pour ce qu'il est, et le respect pour ce qu'il peut être un jour." It doesn't give any reference, just like modern books which include the quote in English.
Disputed