Pieter de Grebber, the son of Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1573–1643), a painter and embroiderer in Haarlem, would have been taught painting by his father and by Hendrick Goltzius.

He is descended from a Catholic and artistic family: two of his brothers, and his sister Maria, the mother-in-law of Gabriel Metsu, were known as painters.

He is friendly with the priest and musicologist Jan Albertszoon Ban, and has had a poem set to music by the Haarlem composer Cornelis Padbrué.

Father and son had in 1618 gone to Antwerp and negotiated with Peter Paul Rubens over the sale of his 1615 painting Daniel in the Lions' Den.

The painting was then handed—via the English ambassador in the Republic, Sir Dudley Carleton—to king Charles I. Pieter has received important commissions not only in Haarlem, but also from the stadholder Frederik Hendrik.

As such, he has worked with on the decoration of the Huis Honselaarsdijk in Naaldwijk and at the Paleis Noordeinde in Huis ten Bosch in the Hague.

He paints altar pieces for churches in Flanders and hidden Catholic churches in the Republic.

He may also have worked for Danish clients.

De Grebber remains single and will live from 1634 until his death at the Haarlem Béguinage.

Besides history paintings, he also paints a number of portraits; furthermore many drawings and a few etchings by him have survived.

From different influences, such as the Utrecht Caravaggistism, Rubens and also Rembrandt, he has developed a very personal style.

He is, together with Salomon de Bray, the forerunner and first peak of the "Haarlem classicism" school, producing paintings characterized by a well-organized clarity and light tints.