It is thought that he began his training at the workshop of his father, the history painter Paulus Joostenz. Wouwerman (+1642), by whom no work has been identified to date. According to Cornelis de Bie, he received training in Frans Hals’s workshop, but his painting does not reveal any connection to Hals’s. According to information provided by his student Matthias Scheits (around 1625/30–1700), in 1638 or 1639, he worked in Hamburg in the workshop of Evert Decker (+1647), a history painter. In any case by 1640 he was again back in Haarlem, since on 4 September he joined the Guild of Saint Luke, of which he was appointed vinder (agent) in 1646.
Wouwerman was an extremely productive painter and appears to have amassed a considerable fortune. His earliest work dates from 1639, Camp with Soldiers playing Cards (private collection). His output extends to 1668, and throughout this period his artistic development is traceable from the early genre scenes, troop clashes and military encampments, hunts, popular festivals and stable interiors. His representation of such subject matter falls within the pictorial tradition of the Haarlem school and remains clearly influenced by Pieter van Laer ‘il Bamboccio’ (1599– after 1642), including the elegant landscapes with the figures that he specialised in beginning in the early the 1650s and that were produced in his personal refined style. Nevertheless, it is difficult to establish an exact chronology, as only 25 of the 600 paintings attributed to him are signed and dated.
His brothers, the landscape painters Pieter (1623–1682) and Jan (1629–1666) Wouwerman, did their training with him. In the 18th century, he became the most esteemed Dutch painter among royals and noblemen, who competed to collect, predominantly, his hunts staged in Italianate landscapes (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 262).