Career
Abraham Teerlink junior was the son in the middle-class family of Abraham Teerlink senior and Johanna Smits. After showing an interest in the arts, he was tutored by Michiel Versteegh and later by J. Kelderman and Arie Lamme. He started with copying works of famous artists (under supervision of the mentioned tutors), but developed into a landscape painter, with his own compositions of landscapes often with cattle.
He left for two years to Paris and Rome.
In Paris he spent 1,5 year, copying and studying paintings from the Louvre and the Academy under supervision of the popular professor Jacques-Louis David, along with his compatriot from Dordrecht, Leendert de Koningh. He then travelled to Rome where he was able to find work in 1809, and remained there longer than planned.
Once abroad he also spent time on poetry (in French). In 1810 he settled definitively in Rome, though he continued to enter art competitions in the north.
Teerlink never returned to the Netherlands, but did submit works for exhibitions in the Netherlands, which gained him wide recognition.
In Rome he became a professor of fine arts