Lyckle de Vries was educated at Groningen University, where he later also taught art history from 1970 until 2000. He was a fellow of N.I.A.S., Wassenaar in 1981 and 1994-1995, and a scholar of the J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica (CA) in 1986-1987. In 1997, he was an Art Council Professor in the department of Art History, U.C.L.A.