Willem RoelofsDutch Painter, 1822-1897 Dutch painter. He is said
to have made his first sketches at the age of four; at fifteen
he completed his first landscape painting. Many of these early
works are in the print rooms of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and
the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. In c. 1837-8 he was apprenticed
to the amateur painter Abraham Hendrik de Winter (1800-61) in
Utrecht, where the Roelofs family had moved in 1826. In 1838 he
entered his first paintings in the Exhibition of Living Masters
in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In the late summer of 1840 Roelofs
became a pupil of the landscape and animal painter Hendrik van
de Sande Bakhuyzen (1795-1860), with whom he made a study trip
to Germany in 1841. Roelofs took a special interest in nature:
he applied himself energetically both to painting and drawing,
almost always selecting landscape subjects. He also studied
entomology and accumulated a large collection of insects. After
his training he returned to his parents in Utrecht.