Matthijs Maris

Matthias Maris was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer. He was also known as Matthijs Maris or Thijs. He initially belonged to the Hague School, like his two brothers, Jacob and Willem, but his later works deviated more and more from that school into a unique style influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.
He was born in The Hague. At the age of twelve, he registered at the Hague Academy of Art, but did not pass the entrance exam. Therefore, he took lessons from Isaac Cornelis Elink Sterk, secretary of the Academy. One year later he was admitted and studied there until 1855. In 1854 he became a pupil of the marine painter Louis Meijer, who helped him obtain a grant from Queen Sophie that enabled him to follow his brother Jacob to Antwerp, where they rented rooms together. In 1858 Matthijs returned to The Hague, where Jacob already had a studio they could share. A later commission enabled them to travel in and start painting in Oosterbeek with painters as Gerard Bilders and Anton Mauve.
In 1860 he traveled with his brother Jacob along the Rhine to Switzerland and back through France to the Netherlands.