In the three decades between 1860 and 1890, the painters of the so-called Hague School made a name for themselves in the Netherlands. The realists often used rather gloomy colours, with one exception: Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch is regarded as a watercolour painter who, with his landscapes and the depictions of a grandiose and cloudy horizon, is still widely admired today.

Weissenbruch, whose real first names Hendrik Johannes were changed into Jan Hendrik, came from the artist family Johannes Weissenbruch and Johanna Hendrika Zaag, in whose household patronage and own painting work were of great importance. The Weissenbruchs' art collection included works by Andreas Schelfhout and Bartholomeus van Hove. Weissenbruch's cousins Jan, Frederik Hendrik and Frederik Johann also made a name for themselves in the Dutch art scene as painters of urban motifs, lithographers and engravers. When Jan Hendrik was 16 years old, he took painting lessons with Bartholomeus van Hove and Johannes Low at the Hague Academy of Art. During the day, Weissenbruch worked alongside Salomon Verveer and Johannes Bosboom in Van Hove's studio, mainly on scenery paintings for the Dutch Royal Theatre.

As a renowned representative of romantic landscape painting Andreas Schelfhout had a strong influence on Weissenbruch's early work. In addition, his detailed landscape depictions were complemented by magnificent sky panoramas, which reveal Weissenbruch's great admiration for Jacob van Ruisdael from the 17th century. Nevertheless, he learned very quickly to perfect his own painting style. In 1847 Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch exhibited his own works for the first time at the Living Masters exhibition. He was also co-founder of the Pulchri Studios in The Hague, which is still considered an association of important painters, photographers and sculptors today. Although the renowned Teylers Museum in Haarlem had acquired one of his panoramic paintings at this time, it was to take until the end of the 1880s before Weissenbruch received comprehensive public recognition. By then he had developed further from a painter of Dutch Romanticism to a protagonist of the Hague School. His depictions of the sea and dunes bask in the dense light of the wide sky, with all watercolours and some oil paintings painted with free, delicate brushstrokes.

He preferred to paint directly in the open nature. Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch became increasingly reluctant to use the colours for maritime motifs, and applied them broadly and loosely. This gave the depictions a more atmospheric quality and the master came to the conclusion that sky and light are responsible for the magic of a landscape painting. Personally, Weissenbruch was considered a man of direct speech: In Dutch art circles he was known as the "sword without mercy". For example, he had once judged the first paintings Vincent van Goghs at the direct request of the landscape painter Anton Mauve and recommended him to draw less with watercolors and more with a pen - the pen drawings were then among van Gogh's first successes.

In the last two decades of his life, Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch had reached the absolute peak of his artistic output. His watercolors and oil paintings also attracted great attention internationally, and they became especially popular in Canada and France. Today his great paintings are shown in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag or the Groninger Museum, among others.