Adriaan van der Willigen

Adriaan van der Willigen (1766, Rotterdam – 1841, Haarlem) was a Dutch writer of plays and travelogues who is mostly remembered today for his comprehensive list of painter biographies.

He later moved back to Rotterdam at age 16 to live with his strict Calvinist father, who did not allow him to attend the theater, and where he was set to work as a clerk in a merchant's office.

He became a follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and escaped his father's house a year and a half later in 1785 to join the Dutch Republican Army, and was stationed along the Waal (river) in Nijmegen, Grave, and Venlo.

Van der Willigen promptly entered the next Teylers Tweede Genootschap competition and won a gold medal in the same category in 1806 together with Pieter Kikkert, for their contribution on the Reasons for the small number of Dutch history painters.

[4] Five of his autobiographical travelogues and diaries were compiled into an autobiography in 2010 by the city archivaris of North Brabant, Jan Sanders, and Lia van der Heijden.