Daniel Mijtens

For a long time in the same French private collection, this portrait signed Mijtens is fully in keeping with the corpus of the artist’s works. The sitter’s lace collar notably reappears in the Portrait of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, inv. PG 2733) enabling the work to be dated to the 1630s. At this time, the artist, who was born in Delft and trained in The Hague, had been living in London for about ten years and had been appointed Painter to the King.

The training he received in Holland is reflected here in the precision of the drawing and the skilled play of light that emphasizes the richness of the clothing. With his bust slightly turned, the man – perhaps aged forty-six as the inscription on the right suggests – looks out at the viewer confidently. Mijtens has brought the face to life with his rapid brushstrokes.