After Frans van der Mijn

ABOUT THE ARTIST: 

Van der Mijn came from a family of Dutch artists.  His father, aunt and siblings were all artists.  His father, Herman van der Mijn arrived in London in 1721 from Antwerp.  Herman van der Mijn sitters included both the Elector Palatine and the English court where both Frederick Prince of Wales and William, Prince of Orange were sitters.   

Frans was taught by his father whilst in London and worked as his assistant before leaving to work in Amsterdam and The Hague 1740s and 1750's but returning to London in the 1760s.  Van der Mijn become an artist of considerable merit and was amusing referred to as " of mean address and vulgar manners: He loved smoking and drinking, nor would forego his pipe, though it was offensive to his employers so that he never acquired the practise which he might otherwise have obtained". 

ABOUT THE SUBJECT: 

Although the subject is not identified, he clearly is a child of social status. The artist demonstrates this by painting a rich and elaborate costume with details in gold. In this portrait, the boy is standing whilst holding his gold-topped cane on the tiled floor with a large column and stone balustrade behind him, a landscape beyond. This shows the high class to which he obliviously belonged.  Although the child is the subject of the composition, the artist has also put detail into the columns, tiles and gold braided curtains to represent the spirit of this aristocratic family.    In keeping with much British portraiture of the period, an underlying naturalism (in this case Dutch), is enhanced by stylistic touches and demonstrate admiration for French art—a combination that predominated in 18th century London until the Royal Academy was founded in 1768.

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