C.B. Dankmeijer - Meer van Neuchâtel - E45 - Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands Art Collection

He took his first drawing lessons at the Felix Meritis Society of Amsterdam. In 1881, he went to Antwerp, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts with Charles Verlat and won the "Prix d'Excellence". From 1882 to 1886, he was enrolled at the Rijksakademie. His professors there were August Allebé and Barend Wijnveld. He then joined the artists' colony in Laren, and came under the influence of Anton Mauve. After Mauve's death, he returned to Amsterdam and was married. For many years after that, he moved frequently; living in The Hague, Loosduinen, Zaandam, Renkum (where he worked with Théophile de Bock), Oosterbeek, Leiden and, finally, Scheveningen. This was interspersed with travels to France and Italy. In 1900, he won a medal at the Exposition Universelle. A slightly eccentric man, it was said that you could tell what colors were on his palette from the stains on his jacket. When inspired, he often walked through town so lost in thought that he would not even recognize his friends.