Dutch romantic painter, a forerunner of the Hague School.
Johannes Bilders was born in Utrecht in a poor family. His father was the bakers servant Albertus Gerardus Bilders, his mother Elisabeth van Springen.
He took lessons from Jan Lodewijk Jonxis (9 April 1789, Utrecht – 15 February 1867, Utrecht). After a travel alon the Rhine in Germany (1839), he settled down in 1841 at Oosterbeek, the ‘Dutch Barbizon’, where he gathered around him many young painters who would later become central figures in the Hague School: Hendrik Mesdag, Anton Mauve, Paul Gabriël and his son Gerard.
In 1846 he returned to Utrecht, where he was employed until 1852. Then he spent one year he is in Amsterdam where he was acquainted with Jozef Israëls. He went back to Oosterbeek (1855–1858). After that he went to Amsterdam for a long period (1858–1880), then after his second marriage back to Oosterbeek, where he died on 29 October 1890.
Personal.
On 27 November 1834 he married on Darthuizen Frederica Staudenmayer (1812, Stuttgart – 1 March 1861). Their son was the talented nature painter Albertus Gerardus (Gerard) Bilders (9 December 1838 8 AM, Utrecht), who died at young age in Amsterdam (8 March 1865 7h30 PM). Their daughter Caroline (1836 – 1865) married on 2 October 1862 the painter Johannes Hubertus Leonardus “Jan” de Haas (25 March 1832, Hedel – 4 August 1908, Königswinter). His son, daughter and spouse died of tuberculosis.
On 15 April 1880 he married in Den Haag the paintress Maria Philippina van Bosse (21 February 1837 6 AM, Amsterdam – 11 July 1900, Wiesbaden). She was the daugther of the Liberal minister of Finance Pieter Philip van Bosse (Amsterdam, 16 December 1809 – Den Haag, 21 February 1879). They settled in Oosterbeek.

Link to Wikipedia