Willem van Mieris Leiden 1662 - 1747

This drawing is a rather personalised copy by Willem van Mieris after a print by Hendrik Goltzius (Hirschmann 139), one of three similar depictions of goddesses which Goltzius engraved in 1596.

Dr. Albert Elen has kindly informed us that he knows of another unpublished drawing by Willem van Mieris in a private collection, which is also a copy after a print¹.  Mieris made at least 60 elaborate, highly finished drawings in the same media as the present example, almost certainly for sale, as finished works of art in their own right.  Two fine examples of his drawings, including a design for an elaborate garden urn, were until recently in the possession of Otto Naumann, New York.²

1. St. Anthony adoring the Christchild, by Cornelis Bloemaert after a design by Ciro Ferri from 1678; Hollstein vol. II, no 39.

2. The Otto Naumann Ltd. Gallery Sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 25 January 2007, lots 108, 109.