Duet by Frans van Mieris sr. (1658) Oil on wood, 31,7 x 24,7 cm. Staatliches Museum, Schwerin

Frans van Mieris, the elder (? April 16, 1635 - March 12, 1681), son of Jan van Mieris, a goldsmith and diamond setter, was born, according to Houbraken, at Leiden. Download high resolution version (765x1000, 119 KB)Duet by Frans van Mieris sr. ... Download high resolution version (765x1000, 119 KB)Duet by Frans van Mieris sr. ... April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ... Events February 10 - The Académie française in Paris is expanded to become a national academy for the artistic elite. ... March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in Leap years). ... Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ... Jacobus Houbraken (December 25, 1698 - November 14, 1780), Dutch engraver, was born at Dordrecht. ... Leiden (in English also, but now rarely, Leyden) is a city and municipality in South Holland, The Netherlands. ...

His father wished to train him to his own business, but Frans preferred drawing to chasing, and took service with Abraham Torenvliet, a glazier who kept a school of design. In his father's shop he became familiar with the ways and dress of people of distinction. His eye was fascinated in turn by the sheen of jewelry and stained glass; and, though he soon gave up the teaching of Torenvliet for that of Gerhard Douw and Abraham van den Tempel, he acquired a manner which had more of the finish of the exquisites of the Dutch school than of the breadth of the disciples of Rembrandt. Gerard Dou (spelling variants Gerrit, Douw, Dow) (April 7, 1613–February 9, 1675) was a Dutch painter. ... Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) is generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history (together with Pieter Paul Rubens), and the most important United Provinces (Netherlands) painter of the seventeenth century. ...

It should be borne in mind that he seldom chose panels of which the size exceeded 12 to 15 inches, and whenever his name is attached to a picture above that size we may surely assign it to his son Willem or to some other imitator. Unlike Gerhard Douw when he first left Rembrandt, or Jan Steen when he started on an independent career, Mieris never ventured to design figures as large as life. Characteristic of his art in its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. Categories: 1911 Britannica | People stubs | 1662 births | 1747 deaths | Dutch painters ... Self Portrait as a Lutenist (1660-63) Jan Havickszoon Steen (born 1626 (?) in Leiden, died January 1, 1679 in Leiden) was a Dutch painter of the 17th century (also known as the Dutch Golden Age). ...

The subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded in homely incidents and in portrait, and not unfrequently he ventured on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Ter Borch brought into fashion, and he often rivalled Ter Borch in the faithful rendering of rich and highly-coloured woven tissues. But he remained below Ter Borch and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception of harmony or their charming mellowness of touch and tint, and he fell behind Gerhard Douw, because he was hard and had not his feeling for effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs within which figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Gerard Douw. An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... The letter by Gerard ter Borch (c. ... Bas relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. ...

It is a question whether Houbraken has truly recorded this master's birthday. One of his best-known pieces, a party of ladies and gentlemen at an oyster luncheon, in the Hermitage at St Petersburg, bears the date of 1650. Celebrated alike for composition and finish, it would prove that Mieris had reached his prime at the age of fifteen. Another beautiful example, the "Doctor Feeling a Lady's Pulse" in the gallery of Vienna, is dated 1656; and Waagen, in one of his critical essays, justly observes that it is a remarkable production for a youth of twenty-one. In 1657 Mieris was married at Leiden in the presence of Jan Potheuck, a painter, and this is the earliest written record of his existence on which we can implicitly rely. Of the numerous panels by Mieris, twenty-nine at least are dated--the latest being an allegory, long in the Ruhl collection at Cologne, illustrating what he considered the kindred vices of drinking, smoking and dicing, in the year 1680. The Hermitage Museum (Эрмитаж) in St. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... Gustav Friedrich Waagen (February 11, 1794–July 15, 1868) was a German art historian. ... Events January 8 - Miles Sindercombe, would-be-assassin of Oliver Cromwell, and his group are captured in London February - Admiral Robert Blake defeats the Spanish West Indian Fleet in a battle over the seizure of Jamaica. ...

Mieris had numerous and distinguished patrons. He received valuable commissions from Archduke Leopold, the elector-palatine, and Cosimo III, grand-duke of Tuscany. His practice was large and lucrative, but never engendered in him either carelessness or neglect. If there be a difference between the painter's earlier and later work, it is that the former was clearer and more delicate in flesh, whilst the latter was often darker and more livid in the shadows. When he died his clients naturally went over to his son Willem, who in turn bequeathed his painting-room to his son Frans. But neither Willem nor Frans the younger equalled Frans the elder. Leopold I Habsburg (June 9, 1640 – May 5, 1705), Holy Roman emperor, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife Maria Anna, daughter of Philip III of Spain. ... Frans van Mieris, the younger (1689-1763), Dutch painter, and son of Willem van Mieris, also lived on the traditions of his grandfather, Franss studio. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...