“After a long trip hitchhiking with Corneille to Friesland, where we came for the first time after the war [in 1946] we met Gerrit [Benner], a born painter with a Nordic fabulous side in his work. We were received by the Frisian stove with fragrant coffee and I gazed over the meadows with abstract cows, what were his paintings. We immediately called each other by the right name, also later when we met and said: 'Hey old robber, how are you?' (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)”