Pieter Neefs the Younger was christened in Antwerp on 23rd May 1620 and learned from his father, the painter Pieter Neefs the Elder, whose style he continued. Under the influence of Hendrick van Steenwijck the Elder or the Younger, Pieter Neefs the Elder had developed three types of church interior views, which he repeated with slight variations. The staffage in the church interiors of Pieter Neefs the Elder and the Younger usually came from other artists such as David Teniers the Younger, Sebastiaen Vrancx or Frans Francken II and III. His brother Lodewijk, who was three years his senior, also seems to have been trained as a painter in his father's workshop; however, he later became a friar. An entry in the Liggeren notes that their mother Maria Lauterbeens had debts in 1655/56 because of funeral costs. This suggests that Pieter Neefs the Elder had died impoverished shortly before. According to Van den Branden, the entry was for his wife, but since Pieter Neefs the Elder was last mentioned in 1656 on the occasion of an inheritance, Van den Branden nevertheless set the date of death shortly after 1656. Pieter Neefs the Younger was still active in 1675, for his last known painting dates from that year (today Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum, Princely Collections).
