The Amsterdam-born artist and art critic Maurits van der Valk started painting at the Rijksacademie in 1878. A fellow student of his was Jacobus van Looy, a year above him were Tholen, Voerman and Willem Witsen. In the years that followed, Van der Valk regularly wrote critical pieces about visual art in De Nieuwe Gids, the mouthpiece of De Tachtigers. Together with the aforementioned artists and Breitner, Isaac Israels and Marius Bauer, he belonged to the group of painters around the Eighties. Maurits van der Valk was a very talented and versatile artist, who preferred painting and etching landscapes, cityscapes and still lifes. He lived alternately in Amsterdam, Amersfoort, Leiden and Laren.