thumb|upright=1.2|Still life of game in a forest
Abraham Mignon or Minjon (21 June 164027 March 1679) was a Dutch still life painter. He is known for his flower pieces, still lifes with fruit, still lifes in forests or grottoes, still lifes of game and fish as well as his garland paintings. His works are influenced by those of Jan Davidszoon de Heem and Jacob Marrel.
After commencing his artistic training in his native Germany, he moved to the Dutch Republic where he was active in Utrecht during the last part of his short life. His works were sought after by 17th and 18th-century collectors from the highest ranks of society throughout Europe.
Life
Mignon was born in Frankfurt where he was baptized in the Calvinist church on 21 June 1640. In Frankfurt they owned a shop.
thumb|left|A bird's nest in a fruit basket
When Abraham's family moved to Wetzlar in 1649, Abraham was placed in the care of Jacob Marrel, a specialist flower painter and art dealer. Marrel gave the young boy also artistic training. He clearly trusted Mignon to handle his business, as he would leave it in Mignon's hands during his frequent visits to the Dutch Republic and in particular, Utrecht. It was also Marrell who asked Mignon to train his live-in stepdaughter Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) in the art of still-life painting. Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of the engraver Matthew Merian (1647–1717). Maria Sibylla Merian achieved distinction as a flower painter.
thumb|Still life with a hoopoe, a great tit, a falconry hood and a decoy whistle all arranged within a stone niche
It is possible that in 1660 Mignon had moved to Wetzlar where the rest of his family had moved. It is possible that the death of Mignon's father around this time prompted the relocation to Utrecht. In 1669 Marrel and Mignon were both registered in the Guild of Saint Luke there. Mignon was an assistant in the workshop of Jan Davidszoon de Heem in Utrecht. It is possible that after de Heem moved back to Antwerp in 1672 Mignon took over de Heem's workshop. His favourite scheme was to introduce red or white roses in the centre of the canvas and to set the whole group of flowers against a dark background. In the Still life with flowers and a watch (Rijksmuseum) the inclusion of a watch and wilting flowers clearly emphasizes the vanitas symbolism of time destroying everything.
Abraham Mignon painted a few pronkstillevens, the sumptuous still lifes that were popular in Flanders and the Dutch Republic from the 1640s. His work in this genre was influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem who played an important role in developing the genre during his residence in Antwerp. A representative example in this genre is the Still life with fruit and oysters (Rijksmuseum). Mignon's stylistic and thematic development bears witness to the blurring of boundaries between the distinctive specialties in still life painting such as vanitas pieces, game pieces, pronkstilllevens, etc. that started in the middle of the 17th century. This blurring allowed artists to experiment with the mixing of genres. An example is Mignon's Still life of game in a forest (Louvre, 1675) in which the traditional elements of a still life are transposed to a forest. The result is a mixing of earlier genre categories and conventions. The use of a forest floor as the setting for a still life piece was not entirely new as Otto Marseus van Schrieck had already introduced it.
Nazi-looted art
In 1938, the Nazi Gestapo seized Mignon's Blumenstück from the Jewish art collector Rudolf Guttmann in Vienna. Agents of Hitler's Fuhrermuseum acquired Blumenstück at the Dorotheum on October 10, 1943. The Monuments Men recovered it and moved to it the Central Collecting Point until 1951. It was sold at Christies Mauerbach Benefit Auction in October 1996.
The German Lost Art Foundation currently lists seven artworks by Mignon, of which two have been the object of "amicable settlement".
The Max Stern Art Restitution Project also lists a Mignon among the stolen artworks it is actively looking for.