Abraham Hulk artwork • painting • previously for sale Shipping in a calm

Abraham Hulk, painter and adventurer, was born in London as the sixth child of the textile merchant Hendrik Hulk. He and his youngest brother Johannes Frederik Hulk, who was born in Amsterdam after the family returned, would both choose the profession of painter. Abraham received his education at the Royal Academy in Amsterdam and then in 1833 made a voyage by two-master to America, where he stayed for a few years. There he mainly focused on painting portraits. In 1835 he settled back in the Netherlands, where he would remain until 1870 and specialized in painting seascapes, both in calm and stormy weather. His style is romantic and related to that of J.C. Dish and Louis Meijer. Hulk was concerned with depicting an idealized atmospheric image of ships at sea, in different weather conditions. In 1870 he moved permanently to London, where he became a successful marine painter. He died in 1897 in Zevenaar during a visit to the Netherlands. Three of his four sons, Hendrik, Abraham Jr. and Willem Frederik, would become painters like their father.