[2] Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a rough pointillist style.

[4] In 1892, at age 16, Kees van Dongen started his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, working with J. Striening and J.G.

[4] During this period (1892–97), Van Dongen frequented the Red Quarter seaport area, where he drew scenes of sailors and prostitutes.

They had two children together: a son died a couple of days after birth in December 1901; their daughter Augusta, called "Dolly", was born 18 April 1905.

Around that time, Van Dongen produced a painting of Fernande Olivier, which was the reason why — according to Gertrude Stein in her 1933 book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas — he broke into notoriety.

In these years, he was part of an avant-garde wave of painters, including Maurice de Vlaminck, Othon Friesz, Henri Rousseau, Robert Delaunay, Albert Marquet, Édouard Vuillard, who aspired to a renewal of painting which they thought was stuck in neo-impressionism.

In 1906, Preitinger and Van Dongen moved to the Bateau Lavoir at 13 rue Ravignan in Montmartre, where they were friends with the circle surrounding Pablo Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier.

After the First World War, under the influence of his companion, the fashion director Lea Alvin (Jasmy Jacob), among others, Van Dongen developed the lush colours of his Fauvist style.

As a fashionable portraitist, he was commissioned for subjects including Arletty, Louis Barthou, Sacha Guitry, Leopold III of Belgium, Anna de Noailles, Madame Grès and Maurice Chevalier.