Antoon was the son of Jan Kruijsen and was initially taught by his father. After training at the academy in Rotterdam, he moved to Geneva. Around 1925 he settled in Chartres, France, where he would live for most of his life. There he also met Maurice de Vlaminck. Kruijsen was a lively, temperamental painter whose character is reflected in the glowing colors and spontaneous, expressionistic lines in his paintings. He is counted among the afterglow of French Fauvism. The painter's work is in the possession of the Musée Jeu de Paume in Paris, among others.