Education
Jan van der Vaart was born in 1931 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
He took some lessons from Just van Deventer and Theo Dobbelman at the 'Vrije Academie' in The Hague in 1952. For the most part he was self-taught.

Career
He started out a studio in The Hague, but moved to Amsterdam in 1960 (where he stayed until 1971).
He took study trips to Italy, France and England (where he came into contact with Hans Coper and Lucie Rie) in 1960-1961.

Production
Since 1968 he was teacher of ceramics at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He taught among others: Mieke Blits, Hanneke Verhey, Beate Nieuwenburg and Els and Gerard van Westerloo. In 1971 he moved to Oosterwoud (NH).