Early Life, Family and Training Hieronymus Van Der Mij was born in 1687 in Leiden, Netherlands, into a family defined by technical craftsmanship. He was the eldest son of Philip van der Mij, a caster of sculptures and vases who lived from 1654 to 1721. This lineage of material precision provided a grounded starting point for an artist who would eventually move from the casting of metal to the application of oil on canvas. The influence of a father skilled in the physical properties of sculpture is a concrete reality that shaped his early environment in the Dutch Republic. His formal entry i…