Pieter Scheen Sr. was originally a teacher in The Hague. In addition, he developed from around 1900 as a landscape painter, working in the style of the Hague School. Around 1920 he started an art dealership in his hometown, which gained national fame in the field of 19th-century romantic painting and the Hague School. His son, Pieter A. Scheen, continued this art business and also compiled the famous Scheen Lexicon of Dutch visual artists between 1750 and 1950. Scheen sr signed his river landscapes and forest and polder views with 'Pieter S'.