Piet van der Hem was born on 9 September 1885 in the Frisian village of Wirdum. He and his brother lost both of their parents at a young age and were subsequently raised by their uncle and aunt in Leeuwarden. There, Van der Hem completed his secondary education (H.B.S.) in 1903, where he excelled in drawing. He went on to study at the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam and later at the Rijksakademie of Fine Arts.

In 1907, Van der Hem left for Paris with a few friends, settling into a modest studio in Montmartre, the city’s artists’ quarter. His primary interest lay in drawing and painting people from modern street life and nightlife: circus performers, clowns, dancers, and extravagantly dressed women and men from the uninhibited nightlife scene. This focus aligns with the themes explored by earlier artists such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and the Dutch artists Kees van Dongen and Jan Sluijters, who had already been working in Paris.

After a year and a half, Van der Hem returned to Amsterdam, where he further developed his Parisian studies. In 1909, he made his debut at an exhibition of the artists’ association Sint Lucas. Also on display was the innovative work of the Amsterdam Luminists—Sluijters, Leo Gestel, and Piet Mondriaan—characterized by bright colors and loose brushstrokes.

In Amsterdam, Van der Hem focused not only on elegant scenes from the fashionable and demi-monde circles, but also on the lives of people in working-class neighborhoods. As in Paris, he was particularly interested in depicting people in lively, anecdotal scenes. Between 1910 and 1914, he traveled extensively to Rome, Paris, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Madrid, where he captured the local populations in a distinctive manner.

In addition to his painting, Van der Hem produced numerous book illustrations, posters, advertisements, and political cartoons on commission until 1945. He died in 1961 at the age of 75. His work is held in the collections of, among others, the Drents Museum, Singer Laren, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Rijksmuseum.