Like Kees van Dongen and the Van Velde brothers, Willem van Hasselt is seen as a French painter. Yet he was Dutch by birth. He was educated at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, and worked in London and Paris (from 1910). In the French capital he made friends under Les Nabis and developed as a colourist pur-sang. His oeuvre includes portraits, landscapes, still lifes and interiors.