The Life of Willem de Kooning Rotterdam, 1904. The air in the Netherlands carries the weight of a family in transition. Willem de Kooning enters the world on April 24, born to Leendert de Kooning and Cornelia Nobel. His early years are defined by a familial split, a divorce that leaves a sense of restless searching in its wake. This internal displacement follows him across the Atlantic. In 1926, he arrives in America not as a traveler, but as a stowaway on a British freighter, landing at Newport News, Virginia. He is an outsider looking for a foothold in a new landscape. The grit of New Yor…