(c.1590 - 1647)
Daniel Mytens, the son of a coachbuilder and saddler, was born in Delft, the Netherlands. He moved to London in the mid-1610s, to establish himself as a portrait painter. In 1624, King James I granted Mytens a pension of £50 per year and in the same year he was made a denizen of the UK. However, when Anthony van Dyck returned to London in 1632, Mytens’ career suffered a considerable blow. Van Dyck soon replaced Mytens as the favoured portraitist of Charles I and the loss of esteem apparently influenced Mytens in his decision to retire early from his painting career. He returned to the Netherlands and died in The Hague, sometime in 1647.
