当他十二岁时拍了一些艺术课，后来就读于艺术海牙学院。从1850年至1853年，他参加了高排名艺术大学。一个艺术品经销商认可了他的才华，看到它，雅各得以在工作室工作Hubertus的面包车霍夫。在那里，他画的内饰以及具象和流派的作品。面包车霍夫了马里斯在他的翅膀，不仅是他的老板也是他的新老师。

范·霍夫转移到安特卫普和十九岁的马里斯和他一起去了。这种关系一直持续到他哥哥Matthijs接到王室补贴，并加入了雅各布。他们一起rentged空间，也有余地他们的朋友劳伦斯·阿尔玛-塔德玛。他们把经验教训在安特卫普学院，并能够出售他们的部分作品。在此之后，他通过德国，瑞士和法国于1861年游历。

像许多海牙学院的校友，雅各马里斯曾在荷兰和国外巨大的成功。他卖他的画中最大的一部分，在美国和苏格兰的私人收藏家。

1857年，雅各布·马里斯返回海牙，但Matthijs呆一年安特卫普之前，他又分享了一个工作室与雅各布在海牙。他们通过复制8皇室画像赚足够的钱之后，他们能够去奥斯特贝克在那里会见约翰内斯Warnardus Bilders，儿子杰拉德，和其他人谁后来在海牙学校发挥重要作用。兄弟俩还去了一个研究之旅一起到德国，瑞士和法国。当他们的钱是花了，他们又搬了他们的父母和雅各接下更多的经验教训在艺术海牙学院。在1864年夏天，雅各再次前往奥斯特贝克并可能枫丹白露和巴比松。继此行他在巴黎住1865年至1871年，然后回到荷兰时，普法战争爆发。

在海牙，他成为了一个强有力的风景画家画的河流和景观钢厂和纤道，并与渔船海滩美景。他的行程变得更广，更大，他使用的色彩变得更加柔和，并针对云描绘的大气写照。已经比十七世纪画家这一部分的Jan van Goyen，雅各布·范·雷斯达尔和约翰内斯·维米尔。他的工作方式已经通过以下方式进行了说明：

他们说，他第一次画，只消耗之后。他含糊地应用于油漆，建立起来，有了它，所有逐步发展的颜色和谐，它建立的主要方向和左右拨弄混乱。只有那时，他完成他的数字与活泼，薄的笔触。但最终的触摸与主中风完成，并在年底的全部工作是最紧张的图纸为固体。
 

When he was twelve years old, he took some art classes and later studied at the Art Institute of Hague. From 1850 to 1853, he attended the high ranking University of the Arts. An art dealer recognized his talent and saw it, James was able to work in the studio Hubertus van Hof. There, he painted interiors as well as figurative and genre works. Van Hof Maris in his wings, not only his boss is his new teacher.
Van Hoff moved to Antwerp and Maris, nineteen, went with him. This relationship continued until his brother Matthijs received Royal subsidies and joined Jacob. Together they rentged space, there is room for their friend Lawrence Alma tadema. They have learned lessons at Antwerp college and are able to sell some of their works. After that, he traveled through Germany, Switzerland and France in 1861.
Like many alumni of the Hague academy, Jacob was a great success in Holland and abroad. He sold his paintings as the largest part of private collectors in the United States and Scotland.
In 1857, Jacob ran back to Hague, but the Matthijs for a year before Antwerp, he shared a studio with Jacob in Hague. After they earn enough money by copying the 8 portraits of the royal family, they can go to where Beck Oster met Johannes Warnardus Bilders, son of Gerrard, and others who later played an important role in the Hague school. The brothers also went on a research trip to Germany, Switzerland and france. When their money is spent, they moved their parents and Jacob take more lessons in the Art Institute of Hague. In the summer of 1864, Jacob again went to Beck and possibly Fontainebleau and Barbizon oersted. Following the visit he lived from 1865 to 1871 in Paris, and then returned to Holland, the outbreak of the Franco Prussian war.
In Hague, he became a powerful landscape painter painting and landscape river mills and towpath, and fishing beach. His travels became wider and larger, and the colors he used became softer, and the portrayal of the atmosphere in the cloud. Has been compared to the seventeenth Century painter this part of the Jan van Goyen, Jacob Van Reis, Dahl and Johannes Vermeer. His work has been described in the following ways:
They said that the first time he painted, only consumed after. He vaguely used in paint, set up with it, all the progressive development of color harmony, the main direction of the left and right with chaos. Only then did he finish his figures with lively, thin strokes. But the final touch with the main stroke is completed, and at the end of the whole work is the most tense drawing for solid.