MIEREVELT (MIEREVELD or MIREVELDT), MICHIEL JANSZ VAN (1567-1641), Dutch painter, was born at Delft on May 1, 1567, the son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver J. Wierix. He sub sequently became a pupil of Willem Willemz and Augustyn of Delft, until Antonio van Montfort (Blockland), 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 remained at Utrecht till the death of Montfort (1583), and then settled at Delft. Devoting himself first to still life, he eventually took up portraiture, and the many commissions entrusted to him necessitated the employment of numerous assistants, by whom hundreds of portraits were turned out in factory fashion. The works which are certainly his are remarkable for sincerity, severe drawing and harmonious colour, but comparatively few of the two thousand or more portraits that bear his name are wholly his handiwork. He went frequently to
The Hague, where he entered the guild of St. Luke in 1625. Though Mierevelt is chiefly known as a portrait painter, he also executed some mythological pieces. Many of his portraits were reproduced by Dutch engravers. He died at Delft on June 27, 1641.
The Ryks Museum in Amsterdam has the richest collection of Mierevelt's works, chief of them being the portraits of William, Philip William, Maurice and Frederick Henry of Orange, and of the count palatine Frederick V. At The Hague Museum are the portraits of four princes of the house of Orange, of Frederick V., king of Bohemia, and of Louise de Coligny as a widow. Other por traits by him are at nearly all the leading continental galleries. notably at Brunswick (2), Schwerin ( r), Munich (2), Paris (Louvre, 4), Dresden (4), Berlin (2), Hanover (2), London Por trait gallery (7). The town hall of Delft has numerous examples.