Dirk Nanninga, an autodidact, initially painted in a style that was related to the Hague School, but around 1910 switched to a more accurate representation of reality. This is why, together with Sal Meijer and Dirk Nijland, he is included in the group of early realists, who were later regarded by Kaspar Niehaus as the forerunners of the New Realists. This latter group of young painters eventually took Nanninga into her midst. From 1926, the painter exhibited his cityscapes, still lifes and flowers at the exhibitions of De Brug in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.