Hendrik Werkman

“biography facts and dates of H.W. Werkman, in the Dutch R.K.D. Archive, The Hague”

“all pictures of Werkman's suites 'Chassidic Legends' in free download images, Royal Dutch Library, The Hague”

“many images of the works of Werkman, arranged after his used techniques”

“Werkman Archive of Groningen Museum - many text sources about Werkman, but most are in Dutch!”

“text 'Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman and the Werk (Work)-mania, in the British Library', by Anna E.C. Simoni, pp. 70-88”

“Since Werkman's death an awareness of his relevance to contemporary graphic design has steadily emerged, and his work has lost nothing of its richness, spirit and optimism.”

“Remembering the time when I met Werkman in the printing house and saw him working, the memories come back how he cut his templates for example. He used a small razor blade, broken in half and wrapped with a small piece of paper. In his hands it was almost like a pencil stump, making a sketch with it. By drawing his lines with the razor blade he cut the template at the same moment. Sometimes he made a drawing beforehand, but usually he cut directly – and he did very skillfully.”

“[Hendrik Werkman], a man with a craving for freedom manifest in his way of life, expressed in his work, who became an artist at the moment he was economically broken, deserted by everybody, considered a freak – at that moment he created a world of his own, warm, vivid and vital.”

“Werkman's fine intuition for purity in art has made him the champion of modern art who fully understood Vincent's statement in [his] letter no. 429: 'Les vrais peintres sont ceux quie ne font pas la couleur locale' (in English: The real painters are those who do not create in local colors).”

“Anyway, it is for sure that Hendrik [Werkman] wasn't absolutely unsuitable for businessman. As so many people he had two personalities, that of the businessman and that of the artist.”

“[Werkman], the printer-painter.. .. who makes prints, in which the meaning of form and color comes completely into their own.. .In his prints he use the side of the hand-roller to draw with [in ink]. He is ad brake, and he makes a lot of witty raids. In this way he comes to print his 'hot printing', analogous to the current 'hot music'.”

“You are an unknown person in Paris, but you don't have the right to stay unknown for ever, because your work really deserves it to be appreciated by a larger public than that in Groningen.”

“At a given moment there comes a time that you kick off everything, the whole mess and relieved you are walking further the path. Then the temptations come: Shouldn't I do this in another way, shall I go back and start to accept that I am a fool. Then bite your teeth firmly and say to yourself: no, stupid fool, don't go back, because what you will lose is profit.”

“Last Sunday we made a bicycle tour of 80 km. Through the North along the edge of the [[w:Groningen (province|province [Groningen]..]] ..On such a day I get again a lot of impressions which will reappear in altered forms in due time. Beautiful landscapes, nice small roads, beautiful farms, meadows with horses and cattle, birds, water and a lot of sunshine. Mills and towers and trees are breaking the lines of the flat land..”

“It was a tough job [the 20 prints of his 'Chassidic Legends']; I have been working effortlessly and incessantly [during 1941-1943]. But it was fascinating and the job gave me also relaxation. Now that it is finished, I can look back on it as a part of my life. I am happy that I have been able to accomplish the work, although there will come critical comments too. You can not escape that, even if you are doing your best best.”

“..When I have made some drawings I see them immediately in front of my eyes, enlarged [and] in colors..”

“Last week we made a bike ride along cornfields with the harvest ready to be brought in. Here and there it was already brought in. Heavily loaded cars rolled back home, and it sounds so nice when the car comes after you.. ..and what a fruit tree loaded with ripening fruit. It is all full of promises and full of mild softness. As you say, it is the late-summer melancholy.. ..moreover one can weep for this dying everywhere on the fields, without any mercy.”

“I never have to search for subjects, they come to offer themselves - the right form is not always there immediately and that is why it is good to draw those small sketches beforehand. Otherwise it will become too wild, the work demands great calmness and if I am bound to time - for example when Greet [his wife] thinks that I should come home earlier - [then] it starts thundering, because peace has disappeared.”

“..not the familiar paradise, but the unknown - somewhere in a continent that hasn’t been discovered yet by anyone from the civilized countries - I have escaped [in his prints!] because it is almost unbearable to be in our world.”

“For me, life would be worthless if there was not modern art and if I did not had the opportunity to express myself in it anyhow, now that I have gradually found the way I can express myself.”