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Matthijs Maris received his training at the Hague Drawing Academy from 1852 to 1855. Afterwards, thanks to a scholarship from Queen Sophie, wife of King William III, he can follow a course at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp. In 1858 he returns to The Hague and, like his brothers Jacob and Willem, he works in the realistic style of the Hague school. In his later years, from about 1875 onwards, he called his art 'the unfinished expression of his thoughts'. Maris was already a 'cult figure' during his lifetime, comparable to Vincent van Gogh later. Fairy-tale figures, wonderful landscapes and mysterious scenes characterize his work. With these dream views he approached the boundaries of the unrecognizable. The symbolists of the late 19th century regarded him as a forerunner in the idea that art should be more than just a representation of visible reality.
In 1869, at the insistence of his mother and brother Willem Maris moved to Paris, where his brother Jacob was already working successfully. Matthijs quickly feels at home in the city, but making contact with clients who want to make money from his art is difficult. When Jacob leaves for the Netherlands again in 1871, Matthijs enters a lonely period. Many artists experience abject poverty in Paris and Matthijs has to conform to the taste of the public in order to earn a living. He then makes work as he did in his early years and scornfully calls these paintings 'pot-boilers'. It would remain a problem for him throughout his life to paint what his clients asked of him.
In 1877 Maris left for London where he made designs for stained glass windows and candlesticks for the merchant Cottier for ten years. When the relationship with Cottier deteriorates, he enters into a contract with the Dutch art dealer E.J. van Wisselingh who also lives in London and gives him carte blanche. During those years he became acquainted with the Pre-Raphaelites, the English artists who opposed the academic art prescribed at that time by the Royal Academy of Arts. They worked with simple, realistic compositions, usually genre paintings in dark, brownish tones. To emphasize the symbolic meaning of his performances, Maris gradually changes his style; contours fade and he limits himself to the use of the colours gray, brown and yellow. He paints portraits and figures, including a number of dreamy brides, in gray-brown tones in several layers on top of each other to give the impression that the image is shrouded in a 'mist'. He also uses dry, loose paint to enhance this effect. In those years the number of completed works is small. Sometimes he spent years working on a painting, because he was searching, but also hampered by rapidly declining eyesight.
Maris lived in London under fairly lonely circumstances for the rest of his life; just a few friends were enough for him. He led a frugal life and detested everything that had to do with money. He died in London at the age of 78, after a life characterized by a desire for freedom and independence. An exceptional loner who was greatly admired by his colleagues.
