Daniël Mijtens (ca. 1590–1647/48)

• Known in England as Daniel Mytens the Elder.
• Was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter.
• He was born in Delft, the son of Maerten Mijtens, an art dealer.
• He was born into a family of artists and trained in The Hague.
• No known work survives from his first Dutch period.
• By 1618, he had moved to London.
• Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford was a patron of Mijtens, and in 1618 while discussing a potential purchase of pictures by Hans Holbein the Younger, offered to have substitute portraits made as copies that would be hard to distinguish from the originals.
• Mijtens was soon commissioned to paint King James I and his son Charles, Prince of Wales.
• After the prince's accession to the throne as Charles I in 1625 Mijtens produced such a large number of full-length portraits of Charles I and his courtiers, including duplicates.

• After the arrival in England of the far more distinguished Anthony van Dyck in 1632 he was superseded as the leading court portraitist. 

• Around 1634 Mytens appears to have returned to the Netherlands permanently.

• He subsequently worked primarily as an art dealer in The Hague.

• Only four paintings survive from this final period.

• He died in The Hague. 

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