A winter landscape with an ox-cart  on a wooded road near a village

Willem de Klerk was born in Dordrecht on November 28, 1800, and passed away there on August 11, 1876. He was a Dutch painter, draftsman, and watercolorist. De Klerk was a pupil of Pieter Hofmann (drawing) and Adrianus van der Koogh (painting). He was known as a landscape painter with a romantic style.

He made several trips together with the painter Matthijs Quispel. In 1927/28, they traveled to the Ardennes and Luxembourg, and in 1932, they visited Breda. Through the Nijmegen region, they traveled to the German Rhineland in 1935, and in 1938, they journeyed to Bavaria, Bohemia, and Saxony.

De Klerk was a member of the Dordrecht Drawing Society Pictura since 1817, of which he became an honorary member in 1868. His early work followed in the tradition of Jacob van Strij, while his later landscapes were influenced by Barend Cornelis Koekkoek. He also collaborated with Frans Jacobus van den Blijk, and Frans Lebret was one of his pupils.

Notes: Willem de Klerk, a pupil of Adrianus van der Koogh, was influenced by Barend Cornelis Koekkoek. His works mirror Koekkoek’s in quality and subject, often depicting landscapes, mountains, and forests. He visited the Ardennes and Luxembourg (1827-1828), the Rhine provinces, and the Ruhr (1835), and later Bavaria, Bohemia, and Saxony (1838) to study landscapes.