Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek was born in Middleburg in the South West Netherlands on the 9th of September 1807. He was the son of Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778-1851) and the brother of the famous Romantic landscape painter Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1868). He was born into the second generation of the Koekkoek artist family and specialised in landscape painting.

Marinus Adrianus initially found work as a house painter and ran a paint supply shop in Amsterdam. He was taught to paint by his father and in 1837 he moved to Cleves in Germany to study landscape painting under his brother Barend Cornelis Koekkoek who had set up a drawing school in the city. Marinus Adrianus painted Romantic landscapes in oils, typically summer scenes with figures in woodland, and worked in Hilversum and Amsterdam.

In 1846 he won a silver medal for a landscape painting form the Felix Meritis society. Marinus Adrianus often painted small figures and animals in his landscapes to illustrate the Romantic idea that man is insignificant compared to the greatness of nature. Later in life his work became more varied and he made portrait and animal paintings.

Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek died in Amsterdam, Holland on the 28th of January 1868.