Johannes Weiland lived and worked in Vlaardingen, Rotterdam and The Hague. He received his painting training at the Akademie in Rotterdam, an institute to which he, from 1879, was also a teacher himself. He painted and watercoloured landscapes, a few still lifes and especially scenes from the daily life of his time, such as a fish saleswoman, a village smithy, fishermen on the ice or laundresses at a canal. He also regularly traveled to Brabant, where he painted peasant interiors, a genre that grew strongly in popularity around 1860.