Willem Roelofs Biography | Oil Paintings

Willem Roelofs painter, water-colorist, etcher, lithographer, and draftsman. Roelofs was one of the trailblazers of the Dutch Revival art, after the Romantic Classicism of the beginning of the nineteenth century, which led to the formation of The Hague School. His landscapes, especially the early ones with their dominating cloudy skies, little ponds, and canals populated with cattle, are typical for the School of Barbizon.

When Willem Roelofs was a young teenager his family moved to Utrecht and he received lessons from the artist Abraham Hendrik Winter. In 1839, when he was seventeen years old, they moved to The Hague so that Willem could study at the Academy of Visual Arts in the studio of H. G. van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

In 1847, Willem Roelofs was involved in the establishment of the artist's society The Hague Pulchri Studio, but he left that same year and went to live in Brussels where he remained until 1887. In 1850, he went to France and was captivated by Barbizon in the Fontainebleau area. He returned there twice, in 1852 and 1855. The following year, he assisted with the establishment of the Societé Belge Aquarellistes in Brussels in 1856. Hendrik Willem Mesdag trained with Roelofs from 1866 to 1869, and would later develop into one of the masters of The Hague School.

Vincent van Gogh followed his brother recommendation that he study with the Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him, in spite of his dislike of formal schools of art, to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, which he did.

Besides painting, Willem Roelofs also occupied himself with entomology, where he specialized in beetles. In 1855, he founded the Belgian association for entomology and became its president in 1878.

Art Movement: Barbizon School.
Artists Influencing Willem Roelofs: Abraham Hendrik Winter, Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen.
He Traveled To Belgium, France.
Painters Willem Roelofs Influenced: Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Paul Gabriël, Frans Smissaert, Willem de Famars Testas, Alexander Mollinger, Vincent van Gogh.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.