Background
His father was the decorative painter Johannes van Prooijen (1801-1871). After graduating, he worked at his father"s business.
His father was the decorative painter Johannes van Prooijen (1801-1871). After graduating, he worked at his father"s business.
At the age of thirteen, he was enrolled at the Academie Minerva, where he studied with Jacob Bruggink and January Ensing.
Soon, however, he began participating in local exhibitions and, in 1853, was awarded the "Grote Koninklijke Medaille" for painting. Three years later, he provided a series of cityscape drawings for the lithographer, Carel Christiaan Antony Last (1808-1876), who published them as the Album der stad Groningen. From 1864 to 1865, he temporarily served as Headmaster of the Academie Minerva, following the resignation of Johannes Hinderikus Egenberger, who later had a change of mind and returned.
The following year, he and his family (which would eventually number seven children) settled in Amsterdam, where he switched from cityscapes to landscapes and river views.
He had an uneventful career, and died there at the age of sixty-four. In 1997, anticipating the 100th anniversary of his death, a major retrospective was held at the Fraeylemaborg in Slochteren.