Willem Roelofs artwork • painting • for sale Farmstead with shepherdess, cows and sheep

Willem Roelofs is regarded as the major forerunner of the Hague School. He painted woodland scenes and extensive landscapes in which he unerringly conveys the openness and flatness of the Dutch polder land with its dykes and cattle under a cloudy sky. Influenced by the French School of Barbizon, he often took himself off to paint directly from nature. In so doing, he was able to capture in a single free brushstroke the constantly changing effect of light and shadow on the landscape. For the greater part of his life he lived in Brussels, but often returned to the Netherlands to paint and gain inspiration.