Abraham Hulk Senior (1813–1897)
English / Dutch marine painter
New Romney, Kent, ca.1880
Oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
Framed to 34 x 46 inches

Abraham Hulk Senior (1813–1897)
Was a prominent Anglo-Dutch painter renowned for his marine seascapes. Born in London on May 1, 1813, as the son of the merchant Hendrik Hulk and Mary Burroughs, he initially trained as a portrait painter under Jean Augustin Daiwaille (1786–1850). Furthering his artistic education, he attended the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam​​​​.

In the early 1830s, Hulk traveled to America, visiting New York and Boston, and exhibiting his works in Boston. He returned to Amsterdam in 1834 and lived there until 1855, after which he moved to various Dutch cities including Nijkerk, Enkhuizen, Haarlem, and Oosterbeek, before settling in England in 1870, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Hulk became widely known for his exceptional ability to depict the sea and its ships, earning him recognition as one of the great marine painters of his time. Some of his portraits have also survived. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1876 to 1890, featuring Dutch seascapes, as well as at the Suffolk Street Galleries in London and in Leeuwarden and The Hague in the Netherlands from 1843 to 1868​​.

Hulk was also the patriarch of a family of artists. His younger brother, Johannes Frederik Hulk Senior (1829–1911), and his sons Hendrik Hulk (1842-1937), Abraham Hulk Junior (1843–1919), and Willem Frederik Hulk (b.1852), as well as his nephew Johannes Frederik Hulk (1855–1913), were all painters. Abraham Hulk Senior married Maria Wilhelmina van der Meulen, with whom he had two daughters, Maria Cornelia Hulk (born 1838) and Hendrika Geertruida Petronella Hulk (born 1841). He mentored his brother Johannes Frederik, several other family members, and the painter Adrianus David Hilleveld​​.

Hulk’s artworks are displayed in various museums, including those in Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Haarlem, and Enschede​​. His legacy as a marine painter and the head of a family of artists has cemented his place in art history.