Willem van den Berg was born on February 16, 1886 in The Hague, where he first trained with his father, Andries van den Berg, a painter, print-maker and art teacher. He later enrolled at the local Academie voor Beeldende Kunst and befriended the artist Willem van Konijnenburg (1868-1943) in 1913. Van den Berg also took study trips to Belgium, Italy and England and worked with the Barbizon artists in France and exhibited at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1926. In 1935, Van den Berg exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, and continued to paint and exhibit internationally throughout his career. By 1938 he moved to Amsterdam, where he became the director of the National Academy of Fine Arts and remained there until his death on 23 December 1970.

Van den Berg painted still lifes, landscapes and portraits although he is mostly known for renderings of peasants and Dutch fishermen. Although Van den Berg was very much inspired by paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, as a result of his time among the Barbizon painters, a connection to Jean François Millet is also apparent. Like his contemporaries, Van den Berg found inspiration in the nineteenth century Amsterdam zoo Artis, sketching animals to be worked on in the studio in a variety of mediums such as lithographs, woodcuts, drawings or paintings.

Funny creatures captured Van den Berg’s imagination as the many iterations of large feathered birds indicate. The present monumental Silver Heron, another local zoo resident, is positioned by the artist in a sparse, symbolist setting. Replacing the heron’s natural habitat with a decorative scheme of art nouveau ornamentation against a monochrome golden background was inspired by eighteenth century Japanese woodblock screens. Like his predecessor Vincent van Gogh, Van den Berg’s sensibility drastically changed once he encountered these exotic and colorful artworks from the east, leaving traditional representation behind for fashionable Japonisme.