Nanno de Groot was born on March 23 of 1913, in Balkbrug, Holland. He started drawing at six years of age. Although his father prevented him to study art at an early age, he moved to the United States in the year of 1941, and in 1946 at age 33 he discovered Picasso and he dedicated the rest of his life to painting and drawing. He worked for a year as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After his marriage to the New York School artist Elise Asher in 1948 Nanno de Groot settled in New York on West 12th Street. He became connected to the pioneers of the New York School, where he came to identify with abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, and Joan Mitchell. Nanno de Groot considered himself an American artist and part of the abstract expressionist movement. His earlier works included a number of monotypes and the now famous "Linear Figures" series, skeletal characters delineated by evocative streaks of black oil paint. In the following series, "Women in Chairs", de Groot observed that features interfered with the expression of the painting.

Nanno de Groot exhibited at the Salon d'hiver in Paris in 1950, also at Saidenberg Gallery, New York in 1952, 54, 55, and Bertha Schaefer Gallery, NYC. His works were exhibited in Hansa Gallery, in 1953 and for the years of 1954-1955 in Tanager Gallery and Stable Gallery. He also participated from 1954 to 1957 in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals. These Annuals were important because the participants were chosen by the artists themselves. In 1956, 59, 60, 61, 64 he exhibited with HCE Gallery, Provincetown, MA and 1957, 58, 59, 61 at Parma Gallery, NY. In October of 1960, his works were displayed in Stamford Museum & Nature Center, Stamford, Connecticut. In 1971 his works were exhibited at Jack Gregory Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in 1982 a Retrospective Exhibition at Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts.

From 1987 through 2003 his works were exhibited at Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA. For the years between 2004 and 2007, his works were selected for ACME Fine Art, Boston MA and there were presented in two exhibitions "Nanno de Groot: The New York Years” and "Nanno de Groot: Earth Sea and Sky” respectively. His works are a part of Museums and Public Collections like Everson Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, Massachusetts, Chrysler Museum of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Hebrew University at Jerusalem, Israel, Provincetown Art Association and Museum at Provincetown, Massachusetts, the Olson Institute at Guilford, Connecticut and the Kresge Art Museum, and of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Nanno de Groot died on December 26 of 1963 in Provincetown, MA.