Willem van Mieris was born in Leiden in 1662. He was taught by Frans van Mieris, his father, who was a well-known genre and portrait painter. His brother, Jan van Mieris, also became an artist. Besides spending some time in Amsterdam (in 1693), van Mieris spent his entire career in Leiden. Willem became a member of the local guild of St Luke, and went on to become one of the founding members of the Leiden drawing academy, which opened in 1694. He taught several pupils, such as Catharina Backer and Hieronymus van der Mij. Van Mieris retired in 1736, as he had become partially blind. He died in Leiden in 1747.

Van Mieris was a prolific artist, producing genre, mythological and history pieces, as well as landscapes, portraits and even the occasional still life. Like his father, he became known as a so-called “Leidse fijnschilder”, a name given to a Dutch group of artists – including painters like Gerrit Dou – who strived to create highly natural reproductions of reality in finely executed, often small-scale works. This rapid sketch of a young man with his arm outstretched is a preparatory study for the young man offering a wine glass in Van Mieris' painting, The Lute Player, signed and dated 1711, now in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. no. P155; see illustration).