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Pieter Cornelis Dommersen (born as Dommershuisen) was born in Utrecht on November 11th, 1834. He was the illegitimate son of Cornelia Dommershuisen and elder brother of Dutch painter and watercolourist Cornelis Christiaan Dommersen (1842-1928). P.C. Dommersen painted sea, land, and riverscapes. He was an avid traveller and ventured on painting expeditions to America, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and France. Often, he would travel together with his brother Cornelis and son William Raymond Dommersen (1859-1927), who had also become an artist specializing in Dutch waterways.
Dommersen moved from the Netherlands to England in approximately 1855. Between 1865 and 1878, Dommersen exhibited at the Royal Academy. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Suffolk Street Galleries and the British Institution. Dommersen signed his English works “P.C.Dommersen” and his Dutch works “P.C.Dommershuijzen”.
Dommersen established himself as an important figure in the history of marine art with his skillfully executed compositions and uncanny ability to capture atmosphere, be that traumatic seas and stormy skies or the serene waters in a harbour scene. His painting technique combined a mastery of light, shading and depth with an ability to accurately paint figures, ships and water. He also infrequently painted Dutch street scenes, which are quite rare and usually much revered. Dommersen passed away in Hexham in 1908 at the age of eighty-five.