Jan Cornelis Tiele was born on 9 July 1884 in Utrecht and died on 31 January 1956 in Arnhem. He was the father of F.J. (Floris) Tiele.

Tiele studied art at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and was a pupil of François Pieter ter Meulen, August Allebé and Nicolaas van der Waay. Tiele also received appreciation and advice from Floris Arntzenius.

Tiele worked as an artist in the Netherlands (Utrecht, Amersfoort, Hattem, Leiden, Noordwijkerhout, Zierikzee, Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft and Arnhem) as well as in Morocco (1921).
As an etcher, lithographer, painter and draughtsman, he is mainly known for his (flower) still lifes, figure representations, portraits, city, forest and country views. As a painter, he preferred to work with oil paint.

Jan Tiele was awarded the Willem van Collen Prize. He was a member of Pulchri Studio in The Hague and Arti et Amicitiae, as well as the Vereniging Sint Lucas, both in Amsterdam.

Tiele exhibited with Marinus Heijnes in November 1933 in Haarlem, among others. NRC wrote about this exhibition in Kunstzaal Reeker: The Noordwijk painter J.C. Tiele exhibits still life, landscape, portrait and figure representation. Serious work on a naturalistic to impressionistic plan, solidly made, responsible.
Jan Tiele also exhibited in 1939 at “Onze Kunst van Heden” in the Rijksmuseum.