And their long session together had a real, tangible result. Something like an association or club had been formed; that is to say, it was actually already there from the moment that the intentions and goals of the three artists had shown themselves to be so closely linked that it was difficult to tell them apart. The first shared resolve of the “association” was fulfilled immediately. The three artists traveled three hours out into the country and rented a farm together. For the foreseeable future, staying in the city would have made no sense. First of all, what the painters wanted to do out in the country was develop a “style,” a certain personal confidence, an eye, a hand, and whatever else all those things are called without which a painter can, it is true, live, but not paint. For the development of all these good qualities, it was hoped that staying together—that is, the “association”—would help, and this especially included the honorary member of the association known as Nature. By nature, the painters understand everything that God Himself created or even might have created under certain circumstances. Fences, houses, wells—all these things are, for the most part, of human origin. But after they have stood in the landscape for a while and have taken on certain properties of the trees and bushes and the other things around them, then it is as though they pass over into the possession of God and thus also become the property of painters. For God and artists have the same riches or the same poverty, depending on the case.

Now, in the nature that surrounded the farm the artists had shared, God certainly did not think He possessed any particular treasure. However, it did not take long for the artists to begin to teach Him better. The area was flat, that could not be denied. But the depth of its shadows and the heights of its lights provided abysses and peaks, between which myriads of middle tones did service for those areas of broad meadow and fertile field that make up the material wealth of mountainous regions. There were but few trees, and almost all of these were of the same kind, from a botanical point of view. However, through the feelings they expressed in the longing of a particular branch or the peaceful reverence of a trunk, they seemed to be so many individual beings; and many a willow became a personality whose character, in its many-sidedness and depth, provided the painters with surprise after surprise. Their enthusiasm was so great, they felt themselves so very much at one with this work, that it is not significant that after half a year had passed, each of the three painters moved into his own house. That was certainly a mere matter of space. But there is something else that must be told at this point.