Jacob Strij, son of the Dordrecht painter and artist Leendert van Strij and Catherine Snak, received his first training as a painter like his brother Abraham by his father. Then he studied at the Antwerp Academy and was then taught painting by the Antwerp painter Andreas Lens. Back in Dordrecht, he developed into a landscape painter. Both individually and together with his brother Abraham, he painted several wall paintings for clients in Dordrecht. On 24 December 1786 Jacob Strij married in Dordrecht Magdalena Cornelia van Rijnsdorp, born in Nijmegen. In his later life he was plagued by gout, which made it difficult to paint. Pieter Christoffel Wonder made ​​Strij's portrait in which his suffering is clearly depicted.

His son John Henry van Strij was also a painter.