Willem Dooijewaard

1892 – 1980

Willem Dooijewaard studied at the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid under Roland Strasser and Georg Sturm. He visited Indonesia in 1913 and 1919, creating oil paintings of Balinese dance and culture, and formed friendships with artists Rudolf Bonnet and Willem Hofker, whose works influenced his own. A quiet yet adventurous spirit, Dooijewaard also traveled extensively across Asia, painting in Japan, crossing the Gobi Desert and the Tibetan highlands on horseback during a two-year trek in the mid-1920s, and later working in Southern France and North Africa.

His journeys inspired a distinctive style characterized by strong lines, bold colors, and expressive detail, often depicting the people and cultures he encountered. In 1930, while in Japan, he met his future wife Jacoba. Upon returning to the Netherlands in 1935, he shared a studio with his brother, artist Jacob Dooijewaard, and remained a disciplined, prolific painter until his passing.