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. Van den Berg also took study trips to Belgium, Italy and England and worked with the Barbizon artists in France. One of his paintings was exhibited at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1926. In 1935, Van den Berg exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and he 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 until his death on 23 December 1970. In 1959 he received second prize at the International Art Exhibition in Edinburgh.

Van den Berg painted still lifes, landscapes and portraits although he is mostly known for renderings of peasants and Dutch fishermen. Besides paintings, he executed drawings, linocuts and lithographs. 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 evident.

Willem van den Berg often worked in the Amsterdam zoo Artis, executing drawings of animals, later in the studio worked into lithographs or paintings. However, the detailed and textured chameleon against a stark white background rather than a depiction of a forest floor or nature arrangements recalls similar austere animal depictions by his predecessor Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). There are several examples of animals depicted by Dürer against a white background, the most famous being The Hare, copied and inspired many artists throughout the centuries. Although Van den Berg’s chameleon is placed on a tree branch, like in Dürer’s animal depictions, the white background is quite prominent. It contributes to a stillness or lack of movement and emphasizes the detailed rendering of the chameleon rather than a suspense created by its natural habitat. The austere background and unembellished tree branch reveal no narrative and oblige us to focus on the chameleon.