Johanna Anna Maria SCHROFER-BAL

After an artistic Aunt noticed the creative potential in young Johanna Anna Maria Bal, her life took a significant turn from the traditional education her proper middle-class parents had provided. Her early marriage, against her family's wishes, to her teacher Willem Schrofer, 23 years her senior, was another break with conventional life. Together, she and her husband founded The Hague's Verve group with a few fellow artists. Her talent flourished over the decades of her long life, despite an early widowhood and World War II. She was an innovative creator of paintings, watercolors, drawings, and mother to four children, including the well-known Dutch furniture designer Frans Schrofer. She passed away in 2012.