Hendrik Willebrord Jansen is one of the artists who were famous in the early 19th century and then faded into the background due to the innovations in painting. He was chairman of the respected Arti et Amicitiae for several years, exhibited at home and abroad and was admired for his modern method and technique for the time. His oeuvre includes impressionistic summer and winter landscapes, river views with ships and cityscapes. From 1892 to 1907, the painter lived in Amsterdam, where he spent a lot of time on the water painting city corners, harbours, docks and wharves. With his wife, the painter Sophie Grothe, he frequently visited Katwijk, especially after 1902. There, the village and the fisherman's life on the beach were popular subjects.