Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne was a Dutch painter of figures and genre subjects. He was largely self-taught but also studied with Simon Valex and Hieronymous van Diest who probably taught him the grisaille technique.

In 1607 he went to Antwerp and afterwards stayed at Middleburg where he lived from 1614 to 1624. His earliest pictures show a great deal of influence of Jan Brueghel the elder and the moralistic subject matter of Pieter Brueghel the elder. He was talented in many disciplines and became an illustrator, print designer, political propogandist and portrait painter working with his brother Jan. In 1625 he moved to The Hague and joined the Guild. It was then that he painted portraits of the King of Denmark and his family and was employed at Court there. Holland's leading writers, amongst whom was Jacob Cats, employed him to illustrate their books.

From 1627, van de Venne was working mainly in grisaille, depicting groups of beggars and vagabonds, peasants and women quarrelling, illustrations of Dutch proverbs and figures symbolising worldly poverty and misery. Less often he painted historical and biblical subjects and portraits, although when he did, it was with a distinct freshness of style. He became dean of the Guild in 1640 and continued producing his successful illustrations and pictures until his death in 1662. He had lived right up until his death in a house named ‘In de drie Leer-konsten’, on the south side of the Turfmarkt, where there was also his painting studio and a bookshop from which he sold volumes of his own poetry.

Museums where examples of the artist's work can be found include:
Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Geneva, The Hague, Hamburg,
Geneva, Los Angeles (Getty), Ohio (Allen), Paris (Louvre), Rotterdam, St. Petersburg and Stockholm.