The Dutch-born painter Henk van Boekel was born in Kleve, Germany, in 1924 and passed away in Rafina in 2005.
In 1936, he received his first painting lessons from the portraitist Otto Sohn Rethel, and in 1938, he studied in the studio of the landscapist John Smith, who introduced him to drawing and watercolors. Living in Nazi Germany, he became deeply conscious of human rights. In 1942, he declined a scholarship that would have been granted to him had he accepted German citizenship. In 1943, he was forced to work in a German war factory. After the end of World War II, he earned his living as a designer for the German Fashion Council, while taking every opportunity to travel frequently to Paris, London, Milan, and Brussels. In 1975, he settled in Greece, where he met the painter Athina Latinopoulou and shared her studio in Plaka. There, he dedicated himself entirely to sculpture and painting, developing an expressionist style.
He held solo exhibitions in Kleve (1947), Athens (Dada Gallery 1984, 1985; Galerie Zygos 1987; Astrolavos Gallery 1993, 2005), Attica (Vorres Museum 2006; Cultural Center of Marathon 2000; Anemos Gallery in Kifissia 1996; Epoches Gallery in Kifissia 1990; Aenaon Art Gallery in Neo Psychiko 1994; Open Studios of Rafina 2002), and the Cultural Center of Naoussa (1988). He also participated in group exhibitions in Miltenberg (1948, 1949), Athens, Kifissia, Rafina, Paros, and Mykonos.