Hendrik Willem Mesdag

Hendrik Willem Mesdag was a Dutch painter famous for his marine scenes and for a spectacular giant painting. Born in 1831, he gave up a career in banking to become an artist and settled in the seaside town of Scheveningen, where he devoted himself to painting the North Sea, its fishing boats, and its shore. He became a leading marine painter of the Hague School.

His most famous work is an enormous circular panorama, a painting over a hundred meters around that surrounds viewers with a lifelike view of the sea, dunes, and village. Visitors still step inside it today. Mesdag's dedication to the sea and his astonishing panorama have secured him a special place in Dutch art.