Christoffel Bisschopartist • painterLeeuwarden 1828-1904 Scheveningen

The painter Christoffel Bisschop was born in Leeuwarden in 1828. At the age of 18 he moved to Delft, where he took painting lessons with W.H. Schmidt. Then in The Hague with H. van Hove. In 1869 Bisschop married the English painter Kate Swift. Afterwards, the couple lived in a villa in Scheveningen, the Villa Frisia, which was decorated in precious 17th-century style. After the painter's death, a number of period rooms were furnished in the Fries Museum with his extensive collection of Dutch 17th-century folk art. Objects from his collection can often be found in Bisschop's paintings. Most of them are portraits, genre scenes and Old Hindelooper inner houses, which have a wonderfully intimate atmosphere.