As a student of Frans Snyder, Jan Fyt continued to cultivate his tutor’s style of Flemish animal and still life painting, playing particular attention to the naturalistic rendering of surfaces, from the plumage of birds to the fur of animals. His forte was gamepieces with dogs, a theme which he repeatedly varied in new compositions.

In 1629–30 Fyt was admitted as Master into the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. There is evidence that the painter was in Paris in 1633–34, travelling from there to Italy where he spent an extended period in Rome. This journey is confirmed by his admission to the Guild of Romanists which only accepted as members painters who had actually been to Rome. In 1652 Fyt became their Chairman. After 1641 he is known to have been back in Antwerp, which he only ever left again for a journey to Holland.