Hendrik Willem Mesdag worked in his father's banking business before deciding to become a painter at the age of 35. He studied in Brussels under Willem Roelofs and Laurens Alma-Tadema. Influenced by both 17th-century Dutch Masters and the Barbizon painters, Mesdag produced lyrical scenes of fishermen, boats and harbours in which he attempted to capture the mists, fogs and skyscapes of his native Holland. He established a personal museum in The Hague and, through his support for painters such as Maris and Mauve and the generation that followed, played an important part in Holland's artistic development.

Mesdag exhibited intermittently at the Paris Salon from 1870 to 1887, at the Exposition Universelle in 1878, and again in 1889, when he was awarded gold. He was a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

Group Exhibitions

2007, Plein Air: Barbizon and the Hague School, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Amsterdam (Rijksmus.): Calm Sea (1860, oil on canvas); Beach and Fishing Boats (1860, oil on canvas); Pinks in the Breakers (c. 1875-1885, oil on canvas); Scheveningen Lighthouse (1895, oil on canvas); Count Menno David Graaf van Limburg Stirum (1874, oil on canvas); Maria Hermina Heemskerk (1887, oil on canvas)
Amsterdam (Stedelijk Mus.): Calm Sea, Setting Sun; Beach; Masts at Sea; Night on the Beach
Berlin: Summer Evening near Scheveningen
Brussels (Mus. Royaux des Beaux-Arts): After the Storm (1895, oil on canvas)
Bucharest (Muz. National de Arta al României): Vessels at Scheveningen
Düsseldorf: Summer Night
Frankfurt am Main: Danger
Groningen: Weighing Anchor; North Sea; Evening on the North Sea
Munich: November Day on the North Sea
Paris (Mus. d'Orsay): Sunset (c. 1887, oil on canvas)
Rotterdam: Sunrise on the Dutch Coast; Storm on the North Sea
The Hague (Gemeentemus.): Dutch Coast; Sea and Sails; Farm; Landscape
The Hague (Mus. Mesdag): Winter on the Beach at Scheveningen; Port of Flushing; Summer Evening at Scheveningen; Danger; Stormy Sea; Building Site at Enkhuyzen Harbour; Evening; Setting Sun; Moonlit Night; North Sea; Seascape; study