Lucas van Uden was born in Antwerp, where he entered the Guild of Saint Luke in 1626–27. He was probably a pupil of his father. He was active in Antwerp for most of his life except for a period around 1649 when he was recorded as no longer living in the city. He was the teacher of Jan Baptist Bonnecroy, Philips Augustijn Immenraet and Gillis Neyts.

Van Uden was principally a landscape painter. Van Uden also painted winter landscapes such as the Winter Landscape with Hunters (private collection).

Although he was never part of Peter Paul Rubens’s studio, his works are partly indebted to that master. Van Uden made copies of Rubens’s works on several occasions. His technique with its attention to detail, particularly in his smaller works, and his search for decorative elements in the larger paintings place him in the same tradition as Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper. General characteristics are a tonally-green recessive view punctuated by slender trees and populated by incidental pastoral and peasant figures. Many of Van Uden’s figures were either painted by David Teniers the Younger or copied from Rubens or David Teniers the Younger.

Van Uden is often associated with fellow landscape painter Jan Wildens but unlike for Wildens, there is no evidence he ever painted the landscapes for Rubens. Rubens also never added the staffage to van Uden’s landscapes.

Lucas van Uden also produced many etchings some of which are part of the collections of the Rijksmuseum and the British Museum. Some of his designs were also etched by his pupil Philips Augustijn Immenraet.