Evert Pieters was born to a poor family in Amsterdam in 1856, and he began his career as an apprentice to a house painter. At the age of nineteen he moved to Antwerp to apprentice with a decorative house painter and began taking night classes at the Royal Academy under instruction with Charles Verlat. The Belgian landscape painter Theodoor Verstraete was impressed with Pieters’ work and offered him an apprenticeship, and together they would travel and paint landscapes. During this time Pieters continued to paint interiors and still lifes to earn a living. He received his first award at the Exposition Universelle d'Anvers in 1885.
For the next 10 years Pieters moved frequently from Belgium around the Netherlands, living and painting in Amsterdam, Den Haag, Antwerp, Volendam and Haarlem. He married Marie Eugenie van den Bossche in 1895 and the couple settled in France in 1896, where he was introduced to the work of the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. During this period he focused on landscapes and still lifes and his painting style changed and evolved in his handling of light. In 1897 he settled in Blaricum in Northern Holland, and in 1900 spent some time in Italy recovering from surgery. Pieters exhibited regularly and while his work was only moderately successful in the Netherlands, he was very successful with American collectors. In 1905 he moved to the traditional fishing village Katwijk aan Zee and it was here that he devoted himself to painting the local fisherman and beach views he became known for. Even after moving back to Blaricum in 1908 he continued to paint these subjects. During the first World War he travelled to London and Scotland.
Pieters finally settled in 1917 to Laren where he created a set in his studio of a farmhouse interior and planted a decorative garden to use as a background for his paintings. By this time his work had become well recognized at home and abroad, and he was well known for his interiors and outdoor scenes depicting local fishing and farming populations including mothers and children playing, inspired by the local communities he lived in. Pieters became a member of the Pulchri Studio at the Hague, the Academy of Antwerp, and of Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. He exhibited widely throughout Europe, in Amsterdam from 1895-1905, Maastricht in 1896, Arnhem in 1901 and at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. He won several medals and awards, including a Gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1896, another medal in Barcelona in 1898 and a monetary award at the l’Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris. Evert Pieters died in an accident, traveling from Baarn to Laren in 1932. He is represented in museums and institutions throughout Europe and America.