The mills, the river with an impressive cloudy sky: how Dutch do you want it to be! For Willem Roelofs, the Dutch polder landscape, with waving reeds and windmills on the horizon, is his most important subject. Roelofs is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Hague School. Initially, the Amsterdam-born artist works in a classical style, but gradually his style becomes more and more impressionistic. Certainly after his acquaintance with the painters of the Barbizon School.
Willem Roelofs is one of the first Dutch artists to travel to Fontainebleau, where, like his French colleagues, he prefers to paint en plein air. His painterly touch loosens up. Willem Roelofs also pays a lot of attention to the light on his landscapes, especially the interplay between sun and shadow he finds interesting.
Willem Roelofs – he is the teacher of, among others, Hendrik Willem Mesdag
