Arend Jan van Driesten - Farm with bulb field.

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Van Driesten was a son of Albertus Willem Jacobus van Driesten and Jeannette Jacqueline Peltenburg. He married Cornelia de Jong in 1911. His father was a civil registrar at the municipality of Leiden and also an amateur watercolourist, who himself would have preferred to become a painter. However, this career choice was not acceptable in his family. However, he continued to paint as a hobby his entire life and also maintained contacts with artists and art lovers. In the nineties he was also an art critic for the Leidsch Dagblad. Van Driesten Sr. devoted himself to passing on his love of art to his son. He sought expert advice about his talent, and became of the opinion that he should become a painter when this advice turned out to be positive. The basic principles of painting were taught to AJ van Driesten by his father. In addition, he later also took drawing lessons at Ars Aemula Naturae. Van Driesten is considered the nestor of the Leiden School, which is also called Leiden Impressionism. He moved in art circles that were considered conservative and his work was appreciated by buyers, so he did not have to give his work another direction. He had a nostalgic worldview and did not have the urge to be an avant-garde artist. Yet he had a truly unique style, Marina van Dongen writes about Van Driesten's style: "A certain drama often predominates: dark silhouettes of church towers against the horizon; skies that weigh heavily on small, leafy villages. Heavy shadows. Like a true Hague Schooler, he paints his landscapes spaciously. [...] Van Driesten usually reserves part of his canvas for an opening to the horizon." Van Driesten gave his own interpretation to impressionism. According to Willem Maris, he was one of the few from his time who knew how a typical Dutch sky should be painted.