Jan Sluijters along with Gestel and Mondrian belongs to the first early modernists. He trained at the Amsterdam Rijksacademie. He then moved to Paris (1904-1907) where his introduction to the work of Van Gogh, Cézanne and the Fauves, including Gauguin, led to him developing an entirely new visual idiom. Sluijters sought to express powerful inner feelings in his work by changing visible forms and applying an exuberant, non-realistic use of colour. Landscapes only occur in his earlier work: later he had a distinct preference for still-lifes, nudes and portraits.