According to Houbraken, his visit to Norway was unscheduled, but occurred when his ship, en route to the Baltic Sea, ran into a heavy storm and moored there for shelter.
There are good portraits of the Great Dousa, as he is often called, by Visscher and Houbraken.
Around 1650, according to Houbraken, he became a student of Rembrandt, eventually developing a close working relationship, painting history scenes, biblical compositions, symbolic studies of a solitary figure, as well as portraits.
According to Houbraken he learned to draw from his oldest brother Wallerant Vaillant and then travelled to Paris to learn engraving.
According to Houbraken who mentions that he was listed on the last page of the Schilder-boeck, his works hung in the Alkmaar city hall when he was writing, and he mentions landscape views of Egmond Abbey, a Judgment of Solomon, portraits, and other historical allegories.
According to Houbraken he specialized in battle scenes and worked for Philip III of Spain and Philippe-Charles, 3rd Count of Arenberg.
Houbraken goes on to say that he made a genealogical and heraldic family tree for the Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and went from being painter to becoming courtier, but he lost everything in a fire in 1651 during the Thirty Years War.
According to Houbraken, who listed him as the most famous pupil of Wybrand de Geest, he was born in Workum and became Kamerling or court painter for the Kurfürst of Vienna.
According to Houbraken he painted portraits and lived together with the respected watercolor painter Willem Bouwer in Rome.
According to Houbraken he was in Hamburg while Johannes Voorhout was there and though he had initially trained in Haarlem under Philips Wouwerman, he later painted farm & village scenes in the manner of David Teniers.
According to Houbraken he was born in England in 1688 as the son of Jan Griffier, and learned painting from his father.
According to Houbraken, he learned to paint in Utrecht and attracted the attention of Johannes van Neercassel, who took him along on a trip to Rome.