Willem Maris

Willem Maris (18 February 1844 – 10 October 1910) was a Dutch landscape painter of the Hague School.

In literature he is often characterized as a self-taught man, and Maris described his early study years as follows: "From the time I was young I worked outdoors.

As my brothers were older than me, naturally I got part of my training from them, and in the winters I went to the Academy of Art, where I often drew from plaster models and also often practiced drawing in perspective.

Maris also received advice from the cattle painter Pieter Stortenbeker [nl], who gave him work to copy.

In 1862, Maris made his debut with Cows on the Heath, which may have been painted in Oosterbeek, which he visited for the first time that year.

Maris would write about his legendary meeting with Mauve: a couple of days afterwards I was sitting somewhere and painting-when one of these braggarts came up behind me.

And suddenly the guy throws his arms around me and roars: 'I sit here all day long plodding away with a pencil -scratching and scratching-and you get it right away!'

On several occasions he angrily broke off his study trips as soon as the sun and wind had chased away the early morning mist.