His father was the decorative painter Johannes van Prooijen (1801-1871). At the age of thirteen, he was enrolled at the
Academie Minerva, where he studied with and
Jan Ensing. After graduating, he worked at his father's business. Soon, however, he began participating in local exhibitions and, in 1853, was awarded the "Grote Koninklijke Medaille" for painting. following the resignation of
Johannes Hinderikus Egenberger, who later had a change of mind and returned. According to
Franciscus Hermanus Bach, a friend of Egenberger's, Prooijen didn't receive a permanent position as a teacher because he had a drinking problem. He was married in 1868, to a woman twelve years his junior. 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. ==References==