🌠 Willem Gerard Hofker Biography

Willem Gerard Hofker was born in The Hague at the beginning of the 20th century. The son of a modest civil servant who was interested in drawing and literature, Hofker showed artistic talent from childhood. His parents supported him, and at the age of 14 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, where he studied with the famous artists Witsen Willem and Isaac Israel, friends of his father from the literary society "De Beweging van Tachtig".


At the age of twenty-five, his works took second place in the Grand Prix of Rome, and soon he married the artist Maria van Ruyter, the daughter of a professor at the Academy. Hofker's career received a significant boost in the 1920s, when he was commissioned to decorate the shipyard of the Koninklijke Maatschappij Stoomvaart (KNSM) and paint the interiors of ships. Soon he was commissioned to paint portraits of Queen Wilhelmina for the headquarters of Koninklijke Maatschappij Pakketvaart (KPM) in Jakarta.

On the eve of World War II, Hofker and his wife traveled to Indonesia, where he actively created landscapes and portraits inspired by the culture and life of the local population. In Bali, he met artists Walter Spitz, Le Mayer and his close friend Rudolf Bonnet. Most of Hofker's works in Bali are scenes of religious life and images of temples.

During the war, the family moved to Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, where Hofker lost many of his sketches. After the war, not supporting the nationalist movement in Indonesia, he returned to the Netherlands. The difficult post-war years brought financial difficulties, but over time his friends helped him resume his portrait practice. During his life, Hofker created about eight hundred portraits, but it was his works created in Indonesia that brought him fame.