Baptised in Amsterdam on 31 October 1638, the son of Lubbert Meindert, he early assumed the surname of Hobbema. By 1660 he had for some years been studying with Jacob van Ruisdael. In 1668 he married (with Ruisdael as a witness) and became a wine-gauger in the Amsterdam octroi; thereafter his activity as a painter decreased.

He died in Amsterdam on 7 December 1709. His earliest dated landscape is of 1658, and his most characteristic work was produced between c.1662 and 1668 although his masterpiece, The Avenue, Middelharnis, in the National Gallery, London, is dated 1689.