As a student of J.C. Schotel Christiaan Lodewijk Willem Dreibholtz preferred to paint ships at sea and river and beach views. It is known that he made several journeys along the coasts of England and France. Beachscapes with rock formations and violently romantic shipwrecks were the result. Dreibholtz was born in Utrecht, lived and worked from 1826 to about 1842 in Dordrecht, the city of his teacher, and then for fourteen years in The Hague and Scheveningen. In this latter period he also painted beach views with barges and fashionable walkers.