Mytens, Daniel the Elder (circa 1590-1647)

Dutch portrait painter active mainly in England. Born in Delft he became a member of St Luke's Guild in The Hague in 1610. He arrived in London in 1618 to establish himself briefly as the leading portrait painter to the nobility and court before losing this position to Anthony van Dyck. Mytens also worked for Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel. About 1618 he made his full-length, seated portrait and its companion portrait of the Countess of Arundel (both National Portrait Gallery, London), setting the sitters against a sculpture and picture galleries respectively. He was appointed painter to James I in 1621 and Charles I in 1625. Mytens's portrait of James I (National Portrait Gallery, London) is unusual in its unflattering depiction of an old and sick man. It is possibly in his portrait of the 1st Duke of Hamilton (National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) that his fine manner is seen at its best or in the elegant 'Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick' (National Maritime Museum, London). Some of his portraits, however, are stiff and schematic suggesting the assistance of his studio, as for example the portrait of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran (1623, Tate, London) known in more than 20 versions. Mytens returned to The Hague around 1634 but continued to work as an art agent for Arundel. The portrait painter Daniel Mytens the Younger was his great nephew