Michiel van Mierevelt

Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt
Portrait of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt (c. 1610–25) by Willem Jacobsz. Delff
Born	(1566-05-01)1 May 1566 Delft, Habsburg Netherlands
Died	27 June 1641(1641-06-27) (aged 75) Delft, Dutch Republic

Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, often abbreviated as Michiel Jansz. and the surname also spelled Miereveld or Miereveldt, (Dutch pronunciation: [miɣil jɑns vɑn mirəvɛlt]; 1 May 1566 – 27 June 1641) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draftsman.

Van Mierevelt was born and died in Delft, as a son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver Hieronymus Wierix. He subsequently became a pupil of Willem Willemz and Augusteyn of Delft, until Anthonie van Montfoort (Houbraken calls him Antony Blokland), who had seen and admired two of Mierevelt's early engravings, Christ and the Samaritan and Judith and Holofernes, invited him to enter his school at Utrecht.

He registered as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in The Hague in 1625. Devoting himself first to still lifes, he eventually took up portraiture, in which he achieved such success that the many commissions entrusted to him necessitated the employment of numerous assistants, by whom hundreds of portraits were turned out in factory fashion. Today over 500 paintings are or have been attributed to him. The works that can with certainty be ascribed to his own brush are remarkable for their sincerity, severe drawing and harmonious color, but comparatively few of the two thousand or more portraits that bear his name are wholly his own handiwork. So great was his reputation that he was patronized by royalty in many countries and acquired great wealth. The king of Sweden and the count palatine of Neuburg presented him with golden chains; Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, at whose court he lived in Delft, gave him a pension; and Charles I vainly endeavoured to induce him to visit the English court.