Abraham Meertens was born in Middelburg in 1747. Although it is not known who taught him, he was greatly greatly influenced by Aert Schouman, who spent some time in Middelburg in the 1760’s. Meertens was one of the co-founders of the Middelburg drawing academy and became its director later on. Meertens mostly painted studies of animals, especially birds, many of which he probably studied in the menagerie of Prince Willem V, Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic, at Kleine Loo. Meertens also made illustrations for a book, De Zeeuwsche Oudheden, which was published at Middelburg in 1780.