Hermanus Koekkoek the Younger was part of the famous Koekkoek artist family: grandson of Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, nephew of the landscape painter, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, and son of Hermanus Koekkoek the Elder. His son, Stephen Robert Koekkoek, also chose to become a painter. Together with his brothers, Willem, Johannes Hermanus Barend and Hendrik Barend, Hermanus received his first art lessons from his father, who had recently settled in Amsterdam.
In the 1860s, he began regular visits to London and settled there in 1869.