Pieter van Loo was born in Haarlem, where he would spend most of his life, in 1735. He became a member of the local guild of St Luke in 1763. Van Loo produced many designs for wall-hangings for the Troost van Groenendoelen factory in Amsterdam. As an artist, he mostly specialized in landscapes and still life pictures, including studies of individual plants, such as the present studie of a Veronica Spicata (a native Eurasian plant), which is rendered in studious detail.