Hendrik Haverman was taught by the renowned August Allebé at the Academy of Amsterdam and then went south for education at the Academy of Brussels and Antwerp. When he returned, he mainly devoted himself to painting genre paintings, while his initially strong impressionistic touch gradually refined. He also became a celebrated portrait painter. Allebé's influence reveals itself in the delicate way of painting, a natural colorite and in the sometimes slightly symbolic tension of his subjects.