author
Adriaan van der Willigen
1766–1841
Best remembered for writing about Dutch painters, this lively Dutch man of letters also moved through politics, theater, travel writing, and art collecting. His life linked the worlds of literature and art at a time of major change in the Netherlands.
1 Audiobook
Reize door Frankrijk In gemeenzame brieven, door Adriaan van der Willigen aan den uitgever
by Adriaan van der Willigen
About the author
Born in Rotterdam in 1766 and later closely connected with Haarlem, Adriaan van der Willigen grew into a remarkably wide-ranging cultural figure. He wrote plays and travel accounts, took a strong interest in the theater, and built a reputation as an engaged observer of Dutch artistic life.
He also played a part in public life during the turbulent political years around the Batavian period, but his lasting place in literary and art history comes mainly from his writing. He is especially remembered for work on the lives of painters and for helping preserve knowledge about Dutch art and artists.
Van der Willigen died in Haarlem in 1841. Today he stands out as one of those energetic nineteenth-century writers whose curiosity ranged far beyond a single field, making him interesting not only as an author, but also as a witness to the cultural life of his age.