The son of the architect Dirk Roosenburg, he attended the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague and the Académie Ranson in Paris.

[1][3] Following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Roosenburg sought a means of practising his art without registering with the newly established Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer (Chamber of Dutch Culture).

As narrated by Nicolaas Wijnberg [nl], a resident during the period, members of the colony "put on strange hats and caps, painted our shoes, and when we went outside we deliberately stared a lot and dreamily at the landscape and the cloudy sky".

In its description of the rijksmonument, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science describes this tableau as highlighting the station's significance in creating new agricultural land from the seabed.

Hansen Hospital began construction in Emmeloord in 1962, Roosenburg was commissioned to create a sculpture for its main entrance.

[12] In his sculpture, Roosenburg employed a figurative approach that Bob Frommé [nl] of Het Parool described as "old-fashioned in the best sense of the word: classic".

He sought to maintain balance, arguing that "realism without interpretation is death in art, but without figurativism there is little but empty aesthetic.

"[c][2] Roosenburg was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1994; by this time, he had served as the chairman of the Limburg Association of Visual Artists.