In 1838 Huijsmans became close friends with Pieter Johannes Veth (1814-1895), his colleague (until 1841) at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie.

Veth later became professor of Ethnology of the Dutch East Indies at the University of Leiden and the first Chairman of the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society.

Some institutions such as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten) in Amsterdam employed his approach as well.

[14] In 1845 King William II of the Netherlands bought Huijsmans’ painting Interior of a House in North Brabant.

In 1852 he developed a second teaching method Grondbeginselen der Teekenkunst, eene theoretische en practische Handleiding om het teekenen grondig te leeren (Principles of Art Teaching, a Theoretical and Practical Manual).

[19] As a result of the mediation of Dutch statesman and minister of liberal signature, Johan Rudolph Thorbecke,[20] Huijsmans obtained in 1865 the important position of art teacher at the new and prestigious Willem II College in Tilburg, a school commissioned by King William II himself.

[22] Van Gogh (1853–1890) had initially been taught at home by his mother and a governess, and later attended the village school in Groot-Zundert, in North Brabant.

In 1864 he was sent to a boarding school at Zevenbergen, but in 1866 his parents decided to send him to the new and prestigious Willem II College in Tilburg.

[25] Huijsmans had built up an interesting library with works from e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio Vasari and Karel van Mander, as well as six books by Jan Luyken, and many, mostly French, poetry collections.