[2] Four of Pronk's sketchbooks are in the collection of the Rijksprentenkabinet (National Cabinet of Prints), now part of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

[1] In 1734, the Dutch East India Company commissioned Pronk to produce designs for a set of china plates.

This porcelain (so-called chine de commande) was produced in China, then shipped to Europe and sold there at an extremely high price.

A set of blue-white plates, for instance, would sell for 1160 Dutch guilders – enough to buy a house in Amsterdam.

The Dutch East India Company ended the deal in 1740 because the production and shipping from China proved too costly.

After working in his father's office for several years, Pronk (on the advice of the scholar and art connoisseur Lambert ten Kate) started to take lessons in drawing and painting from the painter Jan van Houten (1679–1713).

He remained unmarried, possibly because within his congregation it was not allowed to marry non-Mennonites and few women within that community were available for marriage.