Willem Roelofs (10 March 1822 – 12 May 1897) was a Dutch painter, water-colourist, etcher, lithographer and draughtsman. Roelofs was one of the forerunners of the Dutch Revival art, after the Romantic Classicism of the beginning of the 19th century, which led to the formation of
The Hague school
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. His landscapes, especially the early ones with their dominating cloudy skies, demure bodies of water and populated with cattle, are typical for the School of Barbizon.
Biography
Willem Roelofs was born in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
on 10 March 1822. When he was a young man his family moved to Utrecht, where his father became an enlisted member of the Painters and Draughtsman Society in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
, and received lessons from the artist Abraham Hendrik Winter.
In June 1839, they moved to
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
so that the young Willem could study in the Academy for Visual Arts in that city and train in the atelier of
Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen
300px, ''The Artist Painting a Cow in a Meadow Landscape''. Oil on panel, 1850. Rijksmuseum
Hendrik (Hendrikus) van de Sande Bakhuyzen (2 January 1795 – 12 December 1860) was a Dutch landscape painter and art teacher. He was a prominent contri ...
.
In 1847, he was involved in the establishment of the artists society “The Hague Pulchri Studio”. In 1847, he left The Hague rather suddenly and went to live in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
where he remained until 1887. From 1866 up to 1869, he trained
Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag (23 February 1831 – 10 July 1915) was a Dutch marine painter.
Biography
He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his fath ...
, who would develop into one of the masters of The Hague school. His other students were
Paul Gabriël
Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël or Paul Gabriël (5 July 1828 – 23 August 1903) was a painter, draftsman, watercolorist, and etcher who belonged to the Hague School.
Biography
Gabriël was born in Amsterdam, the son of the sculptor and paint ...
, Frans Smissaert,
Willem de Famars Testas and
Alexander Mollinger. In 1850, he was captivated by
Barbizon
Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest.
Demographics
The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''.
Art history
The Barbizon school of painters is nam ...
in the
Fontainebleau area of France.
He returned there twice, in 1852 and 1855. He helped with the foundation of the Societé Belge Aquarellistes in Brussels in 1856.
He unmistakably provided the spiritual impulse for the painters of nature that would later dominate The Hague school. Beside painting, he also occupied himself with
entomology, where he specialised in
beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s. He published about them in scientific illustrated magazines and identified them for the museum of natural history in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
(the current
Naturalis). In 1855, he founded the Belgian association for entomology, of which he became president in 1878. His extensive collection of
Curculionidae became the basis of the entomological collection of beetles in the Natuurhistorisch Museum in Brussels. On his advice,
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
matriculated in autumn 1880 in Brussels.
Roelofs died in
Berchem.
Paintings
File:River landscape, by Willem Roelofs.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''River landscape'', 1842, oil on wooden panel, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...
File:Willem Roelofs07.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Landscape in an Approaching Storm'', 1850, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum
File:Willem Roelofs - Boomrijk landschap met stenen brug over een rivier.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Wooded Landscape with Stone Bridge over a River'', 1852, watercolor on paper
File:Willem Roelofs 001.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Landscape with Trees and Water'', c. 1855, oil on wooden panel
File:In 't Gein.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''In 't Gein'', c. 1860, oil-painting, in Teylers Museum
Teylers Museum () is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval R ...
File:SA 698-Landschap te Oosterbeek-Landschap met vee (provincie Gelderland).jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Landscape with cattle near Oosterbeek
Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about west of Arnhem.
The oldest part of Oosterbeek is the Benedendorp (Lower Village), on the northern bank ...
'', 1867, oil on canvas, Amsterdam Museum
The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the building the Ams ...
File:Willem Roelofs - The rainbow - Google Art Project.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''The Rainbow'', 1875, oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
File:Willem Roelofs - Weidelandschap met vee.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Pasture landscape with cattle'', c. 1880, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum
File:Willem Roelofs - Boerenerf bij Noorden.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Farm near the village Noorden'', c. 1880-85, oil on panel, Rijksmuseum
File:Willem Roelofs - Plas bij Loosdrecht.jpg, W. Roelofs, ''Morning atmosphere - Pond near Loosdrecht
Loosdrecht () is a town in the municipality of Wijdemeren, North Holland, the Netherlands, with a population of about 8,600 inhabitants.
Loosdrecht consists of two small villages: Nieuw-Loosdrecht and Oud-Loosdrecht. Nieuw Loosdrecht covers a ...
'' (early morning)
References
External links
*
*
biography notes and dates of Willem Roelofs in the Dutch Archive R.K.D. in The Hague
Overview of his works at the Nunspeet Museum website55 images of paintings by Willem Roelofs on 'The Atheneum'
180 free images of Roelofs' paintings, drawings and prints in the Rijksstudio of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roelofs, Willem
1822 births
1897 deaths
Hague School
19th-century Dutch painters
Dutch male painters
Painters from Amsterdam
19th-century Dutch male artists