Hoogendijk was born in Krimpen aan den IJssel as the third of six children, and studied law at Leiden University before entering the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam in 1891.

Through their common interest, the Hoogendijk collection became well known by the turn of the century, but suffered a severe setback when Cornelis experienced a psychosis in 1900 during a trip to Paris, where he had an apartment at 59 rue Blanche.

[2] Towards the end of 1906 a Riet and Ferdinand selected a large amount of art to loan to the Rijksmuseum, where the works were gladly received and catalogued by the director Barthold van Riemsdijk.

The art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who loved to tell colorful stories, is probably the source of the uncorroborated tale that his family had him committed due to "wasting his fortune" on his insatiable lust for collecting.

[3] The bequest to the Rijksmuseum was selected by a committee informed by Riet Hoogendijk with the intention to convince politicians to enable the tax exemption status such as the one that had been granted in England for the Wallace collection.