Jongkind first studied under local landscape painters at The Hague. In 1846 he moved to Paris and worked under the genre painter Eugène Isabey and François Picot. He exhibited at the Salon in 1848 and again in 1852, when he received a medal. His paintings were appreciated by Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny, but his work owes more to the atmosphere-conscious 17th-century Dutch landscapists than to his French contemporaries. He chose as subjects scenes along the banks of the Seine River, picturesque old quarters of Paris, the seacoast of Normandy, and views of the Dutch canals.

When his work was not accepted for exhibition at the Salon of 1863, he joined in the Salon des Refusés and met Claude Monet (Monet, Claude), the pioneer of Impressionism, who learned much from Jongkind's rendering of atmosphere and his study of fleeting effects of light and reflections. In 1878 Jongkind settled at Côte-Saint-André (Isère), where he continued to paint the scenes of seacoasts and ports for which he is famous. Suffering from a persecution complex, Jongkind dissipated most of his earnings on drink and spent a good deal of time avoiding creditors. He died in a mental institution.