Biography

According to Houbraken, he followed in the artistic footsteps of his father Otto van Veen

Otto van Veen

Otto van Veen, also known by his Latinized name Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius, was a painter, draughtsman, and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century...

, who may have been his uncle. Rochus had two sons who also became painters. All three lived in Beverwijk and all specialized in painting watercolors of plants, birds and insects on paper and parchment. In 1706 their drawings, prints, and paintings were auctioned in Haarlem.

According to the RKD he was also known as Rocho. The RKD does not mention a relation to Otto van Veen, who painted historical allegories. Rochus painted watercolors for horticulturalists. He painted for Agnes Block

Agnes Block

Agnes, or Agneta Block was a Dutch Mennonite art collector and horticulturalist. She is most remembered as the compiler of an album of flower and insect paintings.-Life:...

's garden and one of his paintings resembles the one she holds in her hand in a family portrait by Jan Weenix

Jan Weenix

Jan Weenix or Joannis Wenix was a Dutch painter. He was trained by his father, Jan Baptist Weenix, together with his cousin Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Like his father, he devoted himself to a variety of subjects, but his fame is chiefly due to his paintings of dead game and of hunting scenes...

.