Willem Dooijewaard (Amsterdam 1892-1980 Blaricum) was trained at the National School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam by Roland Strasser and Georg Sturm. He was Jaap's brother, sixteen years younger, and in many ways his opposite. Although Willem was known as silent and withdrawn, he was a real adventurer. When he was twenty years old, he was one of the first Dutch painters to travel to the Dutch East Indies, China, Tibet and Japan. In Japan he met his wife Jacoba and married in Kobe.

During his travels he tried to capture locals doing their daily work in an impressionistic way. After Asia, he traveled back to the Netherlands around 1933, namely to Laren, and in 1935 he and his wife Jacoba moved in with his brother Jaap in Blaricum in 'De 7 Linden'. In the meantime he had developed a powerful and personal style. In a broad, smooth brushstroke he captured the life and color of these exotic countries. Traveling remained a permanent element in his life later on. Figures occupy an important place in his oeuvre, while he occasionally painted landscapes, cityscapes and a few flower still lifes. In 1938 he lived for some time in the south of France and traveled to North Africa.

In Nice he (also) painted female dancers in the theater environment and was allowed to work in the rehearsal rooms. He made a large number of well-known sketches and paintings of ballerinas in light colors, which strikingly reflect the atmosphere of the theater environment. The works from that period and those of the Legon ladies (Balinese dance) from the Dutch East Indies are particularly popular.

He exhibited extensively abroad; including in London, Brussels, New York, Berlin and Antwerp, and also in the Netherlands. He was a member of Arti et Amicitiae, St. Lucas, Pulchri Studio and the Gooische painters' association. He actually always signed his works with a y in Dooyewaard because no one internationally knows the 'ij'.

balerina via Laren Binnenkunst