A.J. van Prooijen (1834, Groningen - 1898, Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter of cityscapes, landscapes (often with animals) and genre scenes. His father was the house painter Johannes van Prooijen. At the age of thirteen, he was enrolled at the Academie Minerva, where he studied under Jacob Bruggink and Jan Ensing. After graduating, he joined his father's business. Participating in local exhibitions he was awarded the Grote Koninklijke Medaille (Great Royal medal) for painting in 1853.

In 1858 he received a prize from the Art Society Pictura for his painting Rural Simplicity. Three years later, he provided a series of cityscape drawings for the lithographer Carel Christiaan Antony Last (1808-1876), who published them as Album der Stad Groningen. From 1864 to 1865, he was director of Minerva. He married in 1868, and a year later the couple settled in Amsterdam. Since that time he mainly painted landscapes and river views instead of cityscapes. In 1997, anticipating the 100th anniversary of his death, a major retrospective of Van Prooijen’s work was held at the Fraeylemaborg at Slochteren (Province of Groningen).