Jan van Ravenswaay was a 19th-century landscape painter from the Northern Netherlands. He was born in the town of Hilversum
Ravenswaay was the son of a cotton mill owner in Hilversum. He studied drawing with Jordanus Hoorn in Amstersfoort, before following lessons from Pieter Gerardus van Os. He traveled in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland before becoming a member of the Royal Academy of Art in Amsterdam. He won an honorable mention for a landscape in a competition at Felix Meritis in 1818. In 1832, Jan became a member of the artist society Arti Sacrum in Rotterdam.
Noteworthy among his pupils were Jacobus Theodorus Abels and Remigius Adrianus Haanen. His niece Adriana van Ravenswaay also became a painter.