Fishing Boats on the Breakers

Mesdag forfeited a lucrative career in banking to become of a painter. He and his wife, Sina van Houten, moved to Brussels in 1866 and received training from the painter Willem Roelofs and Mesdag's cousin, Lawrence Alma Tadema. After only a few years, Mesdag decided to dedicate his artistic career to painting the sea and shoreline. In 1869, he and his wife moved to the Hague, where he sketched the sea on a daily basis. Mesdag's most famous painting is the panorama of the coast and village of Scheveningen, which is one of the few remaining panoramas of that age. Mesdag was an important member of the Hague School and was also an avid collector of art. Comment on works: Landscapes; marine; etcher; lithographer