Once upon a time there was a painter who divided his life into two
halves; in the one half he painted pot-boilers for the market, setting
every consideration aside except that of doing for his master, the
public, something for which he could get paid the money on which he
lived. He was great at floods and never looked at nature except in order
to see what would make most show with least expense. On the whole he
found nothing so cheap to make and easy to sell as veiled heads.
The other half of his time he studied and painted with the sincerity of
Giovanni Bellini, Rembrandt, Holbein or De Hooghe. He was then his own
master and thought only of doing his work as well as he could, regardless
of whether it would bring him anything but debt and abuse or not. He
gave his best without receiving so much as thanks.
He avoided the temptation of telling either half about the other.