 According to Houbraken he and his brother were born in Lübeck to the underkeeper of the church there.They travelled widely through Italy, England, and the Netherlands, and though Johan Zacharias was a good painter of buildings and landscapes and small portrait works, he never achieved the fame of his brother, who had been a Rembrandt pupil.According to the RKD he was the older brother and assistant to Godfrey, who travelled to Italy with him during the years 1672-1675, and in 1676 moved to London with him.