or MINION, (Abraham), a celebrated painter of flowers and still life, was born at Frankfort in 1639; and his father having been deprived of the greatest part of his substance by a series of losses in trade, left him in very necessitous circumstances when he was only seven years of age. From that melancholy situation he was rescued by the friendship of James Murel, a flower-painter in that city; who took Mignon into his own house, and instructed him in the art, till he was 17 years old. Murel had often observed an uncommon genius in Mignon: he therefore took him along with him to Holland, where he placed him as a disciple with David de Heem; and while he was under the direction of that master he laboured with incessant application to imitate the manner of De Heem, and ever afterwards adhered to it; only adding daily to his improvement, by studying nature with a most exact and curious observation.

"When we consider the paintings of Mignon, one is at a loss (Mr Pilkington observes) whether most to admire the freshness and beauty of his colouring, the truth in every part, the bloom on his objects, or the perfect resemblance of nature visible in all his performances. He always shows a beautiful choice in those flowers and fruits from which his subjects are composed; and he groups them with uncommon elegance. His touch is exquisitely neat, though apparently easy and unlaboured; and he was fond of introducing insects among the fruits and flowers, wonderfully finished, so that even the drops of dew appear as round and as transparent as nature itself." He had the good fortune to be highly paid for his works in his lifetime; and he certainly would have been accounted the best in his profession even to this day, if John Van Huysum had not appeared. Weyerman, who had seen many admired pictures of Mignon, mentions one of a most capital kind. The subject of it is a cat, which had thrown down a pot of flowers, and they lie scattered on a marble table. That picture is in every respect so wonderfully natural, that the spectator can scarce persuade himself that the water which is spilled from the vessel is not really running down from the marble. This picture is distinguished by the title of Mignon's Cat. This painter died in 1679, aged only 40.