Martinus Johannes de Jongh was born in Amsterdam in The Netherlands in the year 1885. He was forbidden to study art by his parents but took a post with a firm of decoraters in Amsterdam. He left after two years at the firm to study on his art. He painted street scenes, interiors and landscape in Amsterdam tradition where he achieved local recognition. Tinus de Jongh’s work was purchased by the Stedelik Museum and his painting of the Alkmaar cheese market by the town itself.

De Jongh moved to South Africa in the year 1921, where he began painting view of Cape Town and the Cape Province. During the early years he lived in a one-room cottage at Deep River with his wife and three children.He was friends with Jack Pieters, with whom he had musical evening together, with De Jongh playing the guitar and Pieters the violin. His etchings enjoyed a receptive market, and hundreds were sold through his agent, Louis Woolf. Tinus de Jongh, an inveterate pipe-smoker, his friends joked that his pipe was even more essential to his working habits than his brush. In 1942, prices for his paintings rose steeply following his death his Bloemfontein.