MICHIEL VAN MIEREVELT (attr. to) (Delft, 1566 - 1641) Portrait of a Man Oil on canvas, 65X62.5 cm Provenance: Berlin, Auktion Paul B. Masurat, 25 April 1951 (as Michiel Van Mierevelt) London, Christie's, 23 April 2021, lot 119 (as Simon Vouet's circle) Milan, private collection Bibliography: https://rkd.nl/imageslite/536739 Michiel Van Mierevelt was the most important Dutch portrait painter of the first half of the 17th century, but his training took place in Utrecht in the workshop of Anthonis van Blockland (1533/34-1583), devoting himself to historical subjects. Back in his home town, the painter established himself in the portrait genre, in 1587 he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Delft and in 1607 he was appointed court painter in The Hague. His patrons included members of the House of Orange-Nassau, but he was in great demand among the entire Dutch nobility. Mierevelt's style conditioned the typology of courtly portraiture and influenced in particular the art of Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638) and Anthonie Palamedesz (1600/01-1673/80). The illustrative fortune of his portraits is attested to by Frederick Henry Prince of Orange-Nassau (1584-1647), who commissioned his portrait from van Dyck (1599-1641) and pointed to Mierevelt's manner as a model.