[1] Pieneman studied under his father and also at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam; he was a pupil of Jean Baptiste Madou.

He was a friend of William II of the Netherlands; he painted the king's inauguration in 1840,[2] and many members of the royal family.

His pupils were Jan Daniël Beijnon, Johannes Arnoldus Boland, Conradijn Cunaeus, Bernard te Gempt, Hendrik Hollander, Willem Johann Martens, Johan Heinrich Neuman, Jan Frederik Tack, and Antonie Frederik Zürcher.

[1] In July 1855, Jan Hendrik Donkel Curtius (the Opperhoofd in Nagasaki, Japan) recorded the presentation of an oil portrait of King Willem III by Pieneman, together with the steamship Soembing.

[1] He was a member fourth class of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences[3] and by virtue of this, from 1852 of Natura Artis Magistra.