Jan van Goyen was born and spent his early life in Leiden. He is known to have sold his house there in 1629 to the artist Jan Porcellis, whose marine paintings were of some influence on van Goyen's early work. Of all his masters, however, Esaias van de Velde was much the most important, and his influence is the most traceable in van Goyen's brightly coloured early style.

By the early 1630's van Goyen had moved to The Hague where he became a member of the Guild and was granted citizenship in March 1634. Despite being a prolific artist, van Goyen had difficulty in selling his works throughout most of his career, and was constantly trying to improve his financial affairs. His efforts at investing in tulip bulbs was a notorious disaster but he fared somewhat better in his property speculations.

Jan Van Goyen was, with Salomon van Ruysdael and Pieter de Molijn, one of the principal exponents of the new Haarlem style of landscape painting. He chose modest scenes to paint, such as simple river landscapes, dilapidated farmhouses and ruined castles, which he rendered in a restricted range of colours.

Museums where examples of the artist's work can be found include:

Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels, Hamburg, London (National Gallery), Paris (Louvre) and Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum).