During her lifetime, Agatha van der Mijn achieved widespread recognition for her still lifes of flowers and fruit that extended far beyond her adopted home of London. Her artwork would have been found in the private art collections of several Florentine families and was also prized by the Ogilvys, a Scottish family famous at that time for their art collection. Her paintings were celebrated for their detailed and precise execution. In Still Life with Flowers and Fruit(n.d.), her realistic technique can clearly be seen through different elements, such as the leaves showing the first signs of withering, the bloom on the grapes and the paper-thin, translucent wings of the fly. The light enters the scene from the upper left corner, directing the viewer’s gaze from the pink and white roses to the more subtly lit fruit. The sharp contrast between the highlighted objects set against the dark background, combined with a cropped composition, gives this still life an intimate atmosphere.

Born into an Amsterdam middle-class family, both A. van der Mijn and her brother, Herman van der Mijn (1684–1741), had artistic careers. While she specialised in still lifes, her brother painted portraits and historical scenes after apprenticing with German still life painter Ernst Stuven (1657–1712). Due to a lack of educational opportunities for women artists in the eighteenth century, it is very likely that A. van der Mijn learned the principles of painting from her brother, with whom she lived and worked in London from at least 1727 after H. van der Mijn moved to London in 1723 with his family, including his daughter, artist Cornelia van der Mijn (1709–after 1772).

During her career, she exhibited works at the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno exhibition in 1737 in Florence and with the Free Society of Artists in London from 1764 to 1768. In London, she exhibited a couple of fruit still lifes alongside the works by her nephews and niece. In the eighteenth century, the Florentine academy organised several exhibitions presenting an overview of the greatest early and contemporary artworks. For these exhibitions, her paintings were lent from private collections of prominent members of the academy. For example, Luigi Siries (ca. 1686–1762), goldsmith to the Medici court, and art collector Paolo Dolci (dates unknown) loaned three flower still lifes by A. van der Mijn to the academy.

Seven other women artists were represented in the 1737 exhibition, including Violante Siries-Cerotti (1709–1783) and Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1655). Their artwork ranged from portraits and self-portraits to historical scenes. Being the sole Dutch female flower still life painter to ever exhibit at the Florentine academy not only shows the prominent position of A. van der Mijn’s works in this particular exhibition, but also reveals the contemporary appreciation of her still lifes.