Biography

According to Van Mander in 1604, he was the best pupil of Hans Bol

Hans Bol

Hans Bol , Flemish artist, received his early training from his two uncles who were also painters. He then was the apprentice to a Mechelen watercolorist and tempera painter at the age of fourteen. Because Bol’s watercolors became so widely reproduced, he began creating miniatures on parchment. The...

 and taught his brother Roelant Savery

Roelant Savery

Roelant Savery , was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter.-Life:Savery was born in Kortrijk...

 and Frans de Grebber, then a promising young painter and tapestry worker in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, how to paint landscapes. He died of the plague in Amsterdam. According to Houbraken, who wrote a biography on his brother Roelant Savery

Roelant Savery

Roelant Savery , was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter.-Life:Savery was born in Kortrijk...

 (more famous because he painted for the court in Prague), Jacob was his father, and taught him to paint animals and fish, but Jacob was his older brother, not his father.

According to the RKD he worked in Haarlem from 1584–1589, before moving to Amsterdam. He was the teacher of Joos Goemare, his brother, Frans de Grebber, and Willem van Nieulandt II

Willem van Nieulandt II

Willem van Nieulandt II was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver from Antwerp.-Biography:His father Adrien van Nieulandt the elder was born to a family of artists of Flemish origin from Antwerp. He probably moved with his family to Amsterdam in 1589 after the Siege of Antwerp, because they were...

. He was the son of Maarten Savery, brother of Roelant and Hans I, father of Jan Savery

Jan Savery

Jan or Hans Savery the Younger was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Though more often referred to as Jan in connection with his best-known painting, he signed his works with Hans, both names being derivatives of Johannes.-Biography:Savery was the son of Jacob Savery and nephew of Hans Savery the...

, Jacob II, Salomon, and Maria. Through daughter Maria, he was the grandfather of the painters Geertruyd, Roelant Roghman

Roelant Roghman

Roelant Roghman was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver.-Biography:Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the son of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. His mother was a daughter of the Savery family, and Roghman became a student of his namesake and great-uncle, Roelant...

, and Magdalena Roghman.