Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (1877-1968) was a Dutch-French painter, who was one of the leading Fauves.
He took evening classes in geometric drawing from 1892-1897 at the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam.
In 1895 he began working intermittently for the newspaper Rotterdamsche Nieuwsblad, for which he made, among other things, a series of bright watercolour drawings of Rotterdam’s red-light district and illustrations of Queen Wilhelmina’s coronation.