Hermanus Antonius Josephus Maria (Herman) Moerkerk (‘s-Hertogenbosch, March 2, 1879 – Haarlem, August 23, 1949) was a Dutch painter, illustrator, draftsman and book cover designer.

Moerkerk came from a family of textile traders who had started a company in Den Bosch in 1854, and worked in his parents’ shop for a long time. He married Henriette Jita Alard, a daughter of a Maastricht jeweler in 1901, who would die five years after her husband, in 1954.

Moerkerk attended grammar school in Sittard and later made a name for himself as a writer, director and poster designer. He did not receive any formal art education, but was a student of the calligrapher Theodorus van Kempen (in 1896), of the painter Piet Slager Sr., and from 1899 he took lessons with the painter Jan Bogaerts. Moerkerk developed as an independent artist: around 1910 he was already quite famous as a draftsman, especially for his caricatures of Brabant folk types. He also provided reviews in the Brabant newspapers and was active as an organizer of the carnival. He also wrote a number of fairy tales and children’s books.

Because he felt misunderstood as a painter, he exhibited 42 expressionist oil paintings in Tilburg in August 1927 under the pseudonym Alexei Wladkine, which differed from his other work. At this exhibition, Moerkerk mingled with the audience and made critical comments to them about the works he had created. The critics praised it as great art.

In 1928 he left with his family to Haarlem, where he joined the publishing house ´De Spaarnestad´. He worked there until 1940 as an employee of the Catholic Illustration; he also designed book bindings and book covers. Moerkerk also worked as a draftsman for the Catholic newspaper ´De Tijd´ and was the stage director of the Haarlem Rhetoric Chamber Alberdingk Thijm, founded in 1890. The painter Jacques Pijnenborg was one of his students.