Hendrik Maarten is the founding father of the painting family Krabbé and grandfather of the painter-actor Jeroen Krabbé. Initially he mainly paints interiors and the lives of soldiers and sailors, with a focus on the social rather than the military aspect. After 1914 he focuses on portraiture. In addition to being a painter and draftsman, he is also a skilled etcher and lithographer. Krabbé lived mainly in Amsterdam. From 1906 he lived for ten years in the artists' colony in Laren, then from 1916 to 1923 in Bussum.