Frans van der Mijn

1719 - 1783 Dutch

18e-eeuwse Nederlandse portretschilder

Frans van der Mijn was een 18e-eeuwse schilder uit de Noordelijke Nederlanden. Volgens het Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) was hij de zoon van Herman van der Mijn en werd hij geboren toen zijn vader naar Düsseldorf verhuisde om te werken voor Johan Willem, keurvorst van de Palts. Hij beïnvloedde de schilder James Latham. Hij werkte tussen 1742 en 1748 in Amsterdam en in Den Haag voordat hij terugkeerde naar Engeland, waar hij portretten schilderde en tussen 1761 en 1772 elk jaar een schilderij inzond bij de London Society of Artists. In 1750 Johan van Gool wrote about him, his father, his brothers Robert, George, Andreas and Gerard, and his sister Cornelia who were all good painters. In 1808 Edward Edwards wrote the following about him: "Frank Vandermine, or Vander Mijne: A native of Holland, who lived many years in England, and practised as a portrait painter, both in London and the country. He was some time at Norwich, where he painted several heads. He had considerable merit as an artist, but was 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 practice which he might otherwise have obtained. He boasted, that after he had painted a portrait, the likeness remained so strong upon his memory, that if the picture were immediately obliterated, he could repaint the resemblance without the assistance of the sitter. He died in indigent circumstances, at his apartments in Moorfields, some time in 1783.