Willem van den Berg was born on 16 February 1886 in The Hague, son of the artist Andries van den Berg (1852-1944), a painter, printmaker and teacher at the local Art Academy. After his initial training with his father, Willem van den Berg 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 dedicated his long, successful career to art of the realist tradition, specializing in portraits, animals, landscapes, and depictions of farmers and fishermen. This intimate portrait of his 84-year old father is a homage to his first teacher and mentor, whose own portraits are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Although Willem van den Berg is such a prolific artist, this portrait, executed in gouache, seems to be the only rendering of his father.