Adriaen van Diest was born at the Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 in 1655. He was the son of Jeronymus van Diest

Jeronymus van Diest

Hieronymus, or Jeronymus van Diest , was a Dutch Golden Age seascape painter.-Biography:According to Houbraken, a Jeronymus van Diest was good with grisailles and was the teacher of Adriaen van de Venne...

, a painter of sea-pieces

Marine art

Marine art or maritime art is any form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries...

, by whom he was instructed in the art. When he was seventeen years of age he came to London, and was employed by Granville, Earl of Bath

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath PC was an English royalist statesman, whose highest position was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland....

, for whom he painted several views and ruins in the west of England. He also painted portraits, but did not meet with much encouragement, although his pictures, particularly his landscapes, possess considerable merit; as a proof of which Horace Walpole states that there were seven pictures by Van Diest in Sir Peter Lely

Peter Lely

Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...

's collection. He etched several landscapes from his own designs, in a slight, masterly style. Van Diest died in London in 1704. Unfortunately for his reputation, he is generally known by his worst pictures, which are frequently found in old houses, on wainscots, or over doors, and are executed in a hasty manner, with much mountainous background. His better pictures have changed their name.