Willem van mieris biography samples

Frans van Mieris was born in Leiden on 16 April to the Remonstrant goldsmith and diamond cutter Jan Bastiaensz van Mieris (–) and his second wife, Christina van Garbartijn.¹ Van Mieris came from a family of gold- and silversmiths; two uncles practiced this craft, as did his older cousin Willem Fransz van Mieris (ca.

–56). In Jan apprenticed his son to this cousin for six years, presumably intending him to continue the family tradition.²

It soon became apparent, however, that Van Mieris’s talents lay elsewhere.

He turned out to be a gifted draftsman, and upon the insistence of the cloth merchant and, later, poet and calligraphic glass engraver Willem van Heemskerck (–92), Van Mieris’s father sent him to study with the drawing master and glass engraver Abraham Toorenvliet (d.

), father of the painter Jacob Toorenvliet (&#x;).³ Van Mieris’s command of drawing developed so well under Toorenvliet that according to Arnold Houbraken, “h