Mesdag, Jozef Israëls, Willem Roelofs, his later wife Marie Bilders-van Bosse and others painters of The Hague.

Johannes Bilders was born in Utrecht and took lessons from Jan Lodewijk Jonxis (1789–1867).

[1][circular reference] After travels in Germany, he settled down in 1841 at Oosterbeek, also called the 'Dutch Barbizon', where he gathered around him many young painters who would later become central figures in the Hague School.

Some of these painters were Anton Mauve, Paul Gabriël and his son Gerard Bilders, among others.

After some time he went to Amsterdam for a long period (1858–1880), then back to Oosterbeek where he married his second wife, the woman-painter Marie Bilders-van Bosse.