Gertrudis Dapper was born in the endearing Dutch town of Schoorl in 1951. Her interests in portrait drawing started when she was still very young and she was often known to admire the paintings of the Bergense School during exhibitions in the neighbouring village.

Gertrudis completed her studies in the city of The Hague and worked as an arts and crafts teacher following her graduation. After a few years, in 1974, she decided to take a leap of faith and moved to live in Tanzania for three years. She worked in a remote village as an arts teacher and during this time produced a vast amount of portraits of friends, students and strangers.

After returning to The Netherlands for nine years she departed to a different continent to live in Nicaragua with her family. During the subsequent eleven years, she joins the Academia de Bellas Artes in Managua and subsequently she worked with local painters in the Gran Hotel. During this time she had several exhibitions and gave art classes and art workshops.

In 1997 she returned to The Netherlands to live in Apeldoorn where she still lives and has her own studio. She carries out portraits besides the projects she is currently working on. She has regular exhibitions throughout the country, one of which encompasses the portraits of the three generations Turkish immigrants in The Netherlands (2008 - 2010).