Jacob Willem Gruijter worked in his native city of Amsterdam and later in his hometown of Egmond aan Zee. He specialized in painting sea and river views with ships and thus followed in the footsteps of his father and teacher W. Gruijter Jr. In addition to his father's lessons, he also studied at the Quellinus School in Amsterdam and was taught by J. Braet von Ueberfeldt and his collaborator Valentijn Bing. In the period 1877-1903 his work was regularly shown at the annual Exhibition of Living Masters in Amsterdam, The Hague, Groningen and Rotterdam.