Born on January 26, 1877 in a town outside Rotterdam, Cornelis Theodorus Maria (Kees) van Dongen is best known for his nudes, portraits, and landscapes painted in a Fauvist manner. In his teens, van Dongen created projection drawings for an engineering office, and later enrolled at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Art and Technical Science, where he studied drawing. Van Dongen worked as an illustrator for Rotterdam magazines and newspapers, and continued to publish drawings in popular periodicals for several years. His early paintings used a dark palette inspired by Rembrandt, who remained an important model for his work. In the mid-1890s van Dongen began employing much brighter colors and a sketchy style that anticipated Fauvism. In 1899 the artist settled permanently in Paris, and lived in the building in which Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris also worked. In Paris van Dongen continued to produce illustrations for numerous publications.

It was in Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century that van Dongen developed his characteristic style. His vivid color contrasts, heavy brushwork, and simplified forms identified his work as Fauvist. His professional associations also allied him with the artistic avant-garde; dealer Félix Fénéon promoted his work, and van Dongen also exhibited with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. The Parisian demi-monde and its cafés, dance halls, and prostitutes were regular subjects for the artist. These scenes often depicted women in overtly sexual poses.

After about 1917 van Dongen concentrated on portraits of notable figures in politics and entertainment, as well as members of the aristocracy, and in the 1950s he used lithography for these portraits. Van Dongen died in Monaco on May 28, 1968.