 His work displays the classicizing influences of his father Erasmus Quellinus the Younger and Paolo Veronese.Mainly active in his native Antwerp, he worked for some time in Vienna for the Habsburg court as a court painter to Emperor Leopold I.

Jan Erasmus Quellinus was born into a family of sculptors and painters, which included, amongst others, his grandfather Erasmus Quellinus the Elder, his father Erasmus the Younger, and his uncles Artus Quellinus the Elder and Hubertus Quellinus.He was trained by his father from 1649.