In the winter of 1903 and during the spring of 1904, the Dutch photographer Sigmund Löw (1845–1910) and one of his assistants, Henry Jan Bordes (1870–1963), visited at least 35 artists with the intention of capturing their image in the studio. Both photographers worked for Atelier S. Herz, an Amsterdam studio that had a lucrative sideline in the fabrication of mirrors and, more interestingly, in the sale and framing of artworks. At some point around 1900, Herz began to focus on photography, mostly turning out portraits on demand and publishing photos as picture postcards, as well as acquiring an offset machine and setting up a distribution system. The subjects of the picture postcards were mostly cityscapes made either by Herz's own employees or by other photographers, such as Pieter Oosterhuis (1816–1885). Herz also did a brisk trade in the sale of portraits of celebrities, for example actors. By 1903 Atelier Herz had become a professional photography studio, abandoning the mirror factory and other activities.

Löw and his assistants preferred a sober, documentary style of photography: the actors, for example, are dressed for their role of the moment, but the acting itself, the gestures and facial expressions which were so often part of actors’ photographic portraits, was mostly absent. Herz's photographs were not marred by the fancy pictorialism or strange angles so typical of the art photography of the time. The soberness of Herz's photography extended to the series of art ists’ portraits, showing the painters and sculptors at the heart of their studio with as much of the workspace as possible visible within the frame. By placing the artist in a corner of the room with all his tools, the studio seemed larger than in reality was the case.

The selection of artists chosen by Atelier Herz is interesting. Most were members of the Hague School circle; glaringly absent is the younger generation of the Amsterdam School who by 1903 were established and respected artists in their own right. One is surprised, for example, to find no photograph of either George Hendrik Breitner or Willem Witsen's studio. If the photographers’ aim had been to capture the 30 best artists of their time, we would today have chosen rather differently. Nevertheless, around 1900 these artists were probably very well known.