Born in Rotterdam, Frans Bakker lived and worked in Indonesia from 1920 to 1932, where he became a well-known painter of impressionistic landscapes, harbours and scenes of village life on Java and Sumatra. The sharp eye for detail evinced in these works remained characteristic of his style after returning to the Netherlands. Settling in The Hague, the city itself and the nearby beaches and sea inspired him to produce oil and watercolour paintings that blur the boundaries between townscapes, beachscapes and animated genre scenes.