Roelof Jansz. van Vries (also erroneously called Jan Regnier or Reynier de Vries) was born around 1631 in Haarlem, where he later received his education. Stylistically he is close to Jacob van Ruisdael and also shows influences of Gillis Rombouts and Cornelis Decker, who all worked in Haarlem. In 1653 he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Leiden. In 1659, Van Vries lived in Amsterdam: a document that states his age at 28 testifies to his marriage there, at which Reynier Hals acted as best man. Van Vries concentrated on landscapes, in which the staffage often came from the hands of other painters such as Adriaen van de Velde and Johannes Lingelbach. He died in Amsterdam after 1681.
