Johannes Hermanus was the first of the Koekkoek family to make painting his profession. He was born in 1778 in Veere on the Zeeland island of Walcheren and moved to Middelburg around 1800 to be apprenticed to the wallpaper painter Thomas Gaal. In addition, he took lessons in the evenings at the Middelburgsche Teeken-Academie. During this time he also started painting: ships and the sea, with which he connected with the prevailing painting tradition in the water-rich Zeeland.
His oeuvre includes cityscapes with water and historical scenes, but especially ships on rough seas, 'turbulent waters' as he called them, or lying at anchor in a calm. Scenes that he painted with the greatest precision and provided with a lively, narrative embellishment. Johannes Hermanus was famous for his truthful representation of all kinds of ship types.
Contemporaries were able to mention that he made detailed ship models for practice and study. The sea, which in Zeeland, consisting largely of islands and water, lent itself willingly to the most diverse transports, was also an enemy, which could change into a wildly swirling mass of water during unfavourable tides and storms. A shipping disaster was always lurking.
Johannes Hermanus preferred to paint these dramatically, the ship with blown-out sails slowly sinking in pounding waves and drowning people desperately clinging to wreckage trying to save themselves. Johannes Hermanus became one of the most famous marine painters of his time and passed his talent on to four of his eight children.
