VOORHOUT.- Panorama Tulipland in Voorhout is a relatively new tourist attraction in the heart of the Dutch bulb fields. One of the attractions is the Panorama of the bulb fields (Bollenstreek), an impressive work of art (63 meter long and 4 meters high) that forms part of a circle to give the visitors the idea that they are standing in the flowering bulb fields.

The painter started his work in 1997 and has finally finished in 2008. It is the worlds largest and most colourful flower-panorama. Since he made the first pencil sketch 1997 landscape painter Leo van den Ende has spent 6000 hours working on the panorama.

While painting the panorama Van den Ende has made changes in many of the details in comparison to the original design, which is largely thanks to many reactions from visitors. There have been suggestions for changes and requests for additions to the painting. At the request of some children Leo has added many animals to the enormous painting.

In total Van den Ende has painted approximately one million tulips and many tens of thousands of hyacinths and narcissus. Practically every flower is individually painted with a sunny-side and a shadow-side.

Van den Ende was born on March 6, 1939 in The Hague, as the only child of the well - known artist Hendricus Johannes (Henk) van den Ende and Maria Frederika van Nelfen.

In the period 1959 - 1960 he lived in Paris for several months and later in Fontainebleau, where his father and him studied the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. In 1978 he befriended Alexander (Lex) Coenraad Rosemeier. Rosemeier, born in 1888, was the last exponent of the Leiden School.

As Van den Ende was impressed and moved by Rosemeier's work, he asked him to teach him. He agreed, and, when the weather was fair, they would often go out with their wives to paint outdoors. In May 1977, on Rosemeier's recommendation he was appointed Secretary of The Netherlands Art Society in The Hague, a position that he held until November 1978.