Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1580 – November 12, 1662) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and poet, who worked mainly in The Hague.

He was born to “worthy” parents who had fled to Delft from the southern Netherlands due to religious oppression and to escape war.

From an early age, Adriaen studied diligently at the Latin school and dreamed of becoming an illustrator. He mainly taught himself painting, apart from private lessons with the Leiden goldsmith and painter Simon de Valck. His second teacher, Hieronymus van Diest, who later became a marine artist, taught van de Venne the art of engraving.

In 1607 he is mentioned in Antwerp, and in 1614-1625. he lives in Middelburg, where his art reaches its apogee. His paintings of this time, polychrome, painted with quick brushstrokes and still mannerist in spirit, are close to the works of Molanus and Christoffeld van den Berghe. In their conception of landscape, they are reminiscent of the art of Bruegel the Velvet (“Summer Landscape”, 1614, Berlin-Dahlem, Museum) and go back to the tradition of Bosch and Pieter Bruegel (“Prodigal Son”, 1617, Kassel, State Art Collections).

His political painting Fishers of Men (“Catching Souls”, 1614, Amsterdam, State Museum) is an ironic commentary on the confrontation between the Catholic and Protestant churches during the Eighty Years’ War, which divided the Netherlands into Northern and Southern, the border between which ran along the river Scheldt, in the immediate vicinity of his house in Middleburg. When he painted this picture, the Twelve Years’ Truce of 1609 was in force. The influence of Jan Brueghel the Elder is particularly evident in this allegory of religious fanaticism, with realistic details treated with subtle humour.