The Heath of Kalmthout, Belgium

Though perhaps not a household name today, Williem Roelofs was arguably one of the most influential figures behind the founding of The Hague School of artists and was unquestionably a sort of guiding force behind their frequent concentration on landscape representation. He was the son of a painter and trained in Utrecht and The Hague before helping to establish the Pulchri Studio, an important locus of artistic activity at the time. Roelofs’s own works (almost exclusively landscapes) are reminiscent of Jacob van Ruisdael, but they are infused with the spirit of the Barbizon painters, whom Roelofs venerated.  He was also an amateur but highly knowledgeable entomologist. He focused on beetles and published them in scientific magazines, provided expert identifications of specimens for the Museum of Natural History in Leiden, and founded the Belgian association for entomology.