Career
According to Karel van Mander he was a good painter, disciple of January Nagel, related to Maarten van Heemskerck, and specialized in landscapes. He helped set up the Alkmaar Guild of Saint Luke in 1631. According to the RKD he helped set up the Alkmaar Guild of Saint Luke in 1632, and much of his work hangs in the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar.
Several of his landscapes of Egmond hang in that museum and one of them shows a landscape of Egmond aan Zee as it looked before it was washed to sea in 1717.
He was also related to the landscape painter Claes Dircksz van der Heck, who made similar landscapes and probably worked in the same workshop. Jacques" son "Niclaes" was Claes Jacobsz van der Heck.