Frans Helfferich lived and worked most of his life in The Hague. There he followed a course at the Hague academy and he developed into a painter of landscapes along the lines of the Hague School. Striking are his smooth-impressionistic representations of modern city life in the court city, so much more 'frivolous' and different in atmosphere than the city portraits of his six-year-older townsman Floris Arntzenius.