Barend Jordens was a versatile artist. He was a painter as well as a sculptor, designing furniture and being a ceramist. As a painter he mainly worked in watercolor, as a sculptor he made both sculptures and medals. Jordens received his education at the Institute for Applied Arts Education and at the Rijksnormaalschool in Amsterdam, and made study trips through Europe (he visited Paris, among others) and North Africa. From 1919 he taught at the Applied Arts School Quellinus in modeling and woodcarving. Jordens often chose the nude, portraits or animals as subjects. He lived and worked for most of his life in Amsterdam, where he was a member of the artists' society Arti et Amicitiae.