[1] Beginning in 1783, Voogd studied at a local Academy and then later apprenticed under the wallpaper painter Jurriaan Andriessen.

The financial aid of the Amsterdam art collector D. Versteegh (1751–1822) enabled him to depart in 1788 for Rome to obtain further training in landscape painting.

Some of these drawings, executed mostly in pencil and black chalk, consist of motifs taken directly from nature, such as trees and rocks; others portray views.

Voogd's works from his first Roman years are primarily drawings with colored wash in the typical late 18th-century linear style.

He experimented with unusual lighting effects and luxuriant foliage, and from 1806 onwards cattle began to feature prominently in his drawings and paintings.