WILLEM VAN MIERIS | Circe begging Ulysses for mercy after he has resisted her drugged cup

Willem van Mieris belongs to the second generation of Leiden fijnschilder painters – artists working in the style pioneered by Gerrit Dou, creating works distinguished by meticulously-executed, exquisite details and smooth surfaces. Trained in the workshop of his father, Frans van Mieris, Willem was particularly interested in the idealisation of the female nude, following his study of classical sculpture. This preoccupation is clearly reflected here in the elegant figure of Circe.

A second treatment of this theme by Van Mieris, also on panel but of larger dimensions (33 x 44 cm.) and of a landscape format, is in the collection of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska.(1)

1 Inv. no. 1995.20; signed and dated 1690.