It is believed that he began his training at his father’s workshop, 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. However, it is clear that his painting does not reveal any connection to that of Hals´s. According to information provided by his student Matthias Scheits (around 1625/30–1700), in 1638 or 1639, he worked in Hamburg in Evert Decker’s (+1647) workshop, a history painter. At any rate, in 1640, he was again back in Haarlem, since he joined the Guild of Saint Luke on 4 September, 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 back to 1639, Camp with Soldiers playing Cards (private collection). His output extends to 1668. Throughout this period, his artistic development is traceable from the early genre scenes, troop clashes and military encampments, hunts, popular festivals and stable interiors, which fall within the pictorial tradition of the Haarlem school and remain clearly influenced by Pieter van Laer ‘il Bamboccio’ (1599– after 1642), to the elegant landscapes with figures in which he specialised from the beginning of the 1650s, produced in his personal refined style. Nevertheless, it is difficult to establish an exact chronology, as only twenty-five of the six hundred paintings attributed to him are signed and dated.
His brothers, the landscape painters Pieter (1623–1682) and Jan (1629–1666) Wouwerman, developed their careers with him. In the 18th century, he became the most esteemed Dutch painter in royal and noble circles, who above all competed in collecting his hunts staged in Italianate landscapes (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 262).