The painter Henk Willemse was born in Amsterdam in 1915, where he led a restless and creative life. In the 1950s he played an active role in the Amsterdam artists' circuit and was one of the founders of the 'Amsterdamse Kunstenaars Combinatie'. Among his friends were Karel Appel, Eugène Brands, Anton Rooskens and Jan Sierhuis. His cityscapes, harbours and landscapes are characterized by colour and movement and sometimes border on abstraction.