Theo Swagemakers was born in Tilburg, The Netherlands to an industrial family. From a young age Swagemakers desired to be a painter and made a career for himself outside his family's successful textile business. He moved to Brussels in 1923 where he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts. After three years of study, he traveled to Paris to complete his education at the Academy Colorossi. It was here that he began to paint in an impressionist style, and trained alongside fellow artists Charles Eyck and Kees van Dongen.

In addition to his work on assignment, Swagemakers typically painted landscapes and seascapes, usually while on vacation. In 1927, at the age of 28, Theo Swagemakers held his first exhibition in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Tilburg would prove as a great stepping stone for the artist, who would exhibit there again in 1936, 1941, 1948, 1959 and 1979.

Today, Theo Swagemakers is recognized as one of the most famous Dutch portrait artists of the twentieth century. He portrayed members of the Dutch royal family including six portraits of Queen Juliana, in addition to portraits of her four children and spouse Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. In 1959 he was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.

Five years after his death, the Theo Swagemakers Museum was opened in Haarlem in 1999. The permanent collection housed 275 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings (portraits, still life, landscapes and seascapes) but unfortunately closed in 2012.