Willem Roelofs

Roelofs was one of the forerunners of the Dutch Revival art, after the Romantic Classicism of the beginning of the 19th century, which led to the formation of The Hague school.

His landscapes, especially the early ones with their dominating cloudy skies, demure bodies of water and populated with cattle, are typical for the School of Barbizon.

[1] In June 1839, they moved to The Hague so that the young Willem could study in the Academy for Visual Arts in that city and train in the atelier of Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

His other students were Paul Gabriël, Frans Smissaert, Willem de Famars Testas and Alexander Mollinger.

He published about them in scientific illustrated magazines and identified them for the museum of natural history in Leiden (the current Naturalis).